Super Smash Bros Melee: Ultimate Tournament
by AllHailMario
Summary: A tournament with an unheard-of reward of one million Smash Coins...it's the Ulimate Tournament, and everyone's signed up. However, a sinister plot lurks in the background, hurting fighters and sowing panic...who's the cause of this, and what's happening?
1. Chapter 1: The Announcement

AUTHOR'S NOTE: First, a few things must be cleared up. At the time I am writing this, this means I'll be working on FIVE stories at once. However, this doesn't bother me as much as it usually would, since I've decided to update some of my stories at least twice a week. Secondly, I understand that there have been a number of "tournament stories" in the Super Smash Bros. category, but this one should really be different. After all, the point is not so much the tournament as it is the mystery behind it all. And thirdly, Marth is going to be the protagonist of this story. Why is that? Because Marth's the best character in Melee, that's why!

So anyway, let it roll!

--

There are many worlds and many dimensions besides the one you live in. Some aren't so old, and soldiers fight with swords and shields. Others are advanced, with technology even greater than what you may think is so technologically complex. Others are pretty similar to yours, with strange creatures that make up the inhabitants.

There is also a final dimension. A very small one, but it exists. This is known as the Linking Dimension. It acts sort of as a crossroads for the boundaries of the other dimensions, so it's an easy matter to tap into their power and go from one world to the next. In this dimension lived a being known as Master Hand. A floating white hand, he had incredible power and knowledge. Using these, he created the Super Smash Bros. Academy, where fighters and warriors from all other dimensions can come together and train, fight, and make new friends.

It took a long time for this "academy" to become complete. The power abounding in the miniscule dimension had to be harnessed into a machine known simply as a Teleporter to transport fighters to and from other dimensions and to send out invitations to those who might accept them. Other technological wonders had to be completed, like the Fighting Polygons, sharp-edged machines that looked like glass but were as weak as paper. They could be programmed to take on the form of fighters that joined the academy. Later, these Fighting Polygons became more-advanced Fighting Wire Frames, and eventually, Alloys.

When it was all complete, Master Hand sent out invitations to twelve fighters via talking balls of red energy. These fighters accepted the invitations and came to the academy, where they were known as Super Smash Brothers. After a long time of fighting and training, they went back to their old dimensions. But even later, they again received these invitations, along with twelve other fighters.

The first twelve were Mario, Luigi, Link, Samus, Donkey Kong, Pikachu, Fox McCloud, Yoshi, Kirby, Ness, Capt. Falcon, and Jigglypuff. They were the Super Smash Brothers of the First Generation. Now, the Super Smash Brothers of the Second Generation were at the Super Smash Bros. Academy, or "Smash School," as they had grown to call it. This second set of twelve included Princess Peach, Princess Zelda, Bowser, the Ice Climbers (which technically were two people), Falco Lombardi, Mr. Game and Watch (a strange, completely black, 2D person who couldn't talk), Ganondorf, Mewtwo, Pichu, a younger form of Link, Marth, and Roy. This boosted the total of fighters up to twenty-four. More friends were made and more battles were fought.

Marth had heard this story quite often, and he still marveled at it. Still, he couldn't understand some of Master Hand's decisions. From what he had heard, Master Hand had invited some pretty nasty people to the fray. According to Mario, Luigi, and Peach, Bowser, the King of the Koopas, was actually an evil-minded creature who hated Mario and frequently kidnapped Peach. Why, then, would Master Hand bring them all together? And then there was the matter of Ganondorf. According to Zelda and both Links, Ganondorf was even more evil than Bowser, who was actually rather a klutz. They had all been at the academy for several weeks, and although nobody attempted anything along the lines of world domination--yet--Ganondorf's concern for no one was evident. Mewtwo was not evil, but he cold-shouldered everyone he met and seldom spoke to anybody.

The building they resided in was both huge and comfy. Every fighter had a room to themselves either on the second floor or below the first floor, twelve bedrooms on each floor. The rooms themselves were very big and had some very, _very_ comfortable beds. The room could be decorated however they wanted (Marth could not bear to be in Peach's room longer than nine seconds). Marth's room was on the second floor, the last door on the left at the end of the hallway. Roy's room was right next to his; he came from the same dimension as Marth, so they became friends instantly.

The downstairs was very spacious. The lobby was a huge, elaborate room made of black stone that shined off of everything. The downstairs included a meeting room, where Master Hand would discuss important information with them, and a library, where books on just about everything existed. Not just fictional stories of this, that, and the other; history books about almost every dimension, included Marth's existed. Marth had spent many a good hour reading up on what he didn't know and still not learning enough.

Below the first floor were, of course, the second set of bedrooms and the Teleporter. The Teleporter could warp them to and from their dimensions if they wanted to visit their old worlds for a little bit. It also allowed them to battle in certain arenas, where whoever got knocked out of the invisible boundaries set by the Teleporter would lose a point, or a life, or coins--whatever they set the rules to. Also downstairs was an exit to a baseball field of sorts, where fighters could compete for the longest hit, and target test areas, where fighters could also compete on how quickly they could destroy all of the targets. Finally, they could compete to defeat the most Fighting Wire Frames. Occasionally, Master Hand would start "mini-tournaments," where whoever could defeat the most Wire Frames or smash Sandbag in the Home Run Contest farthest would get a prize.

A knock came on Marth's door. When Marth gave permission to come in, Roy peeked his head in.

"Hey, Roy."

"Hey, Marth," the red-head answered. "I was wondering if you were in the mood for a little fight. I just beat Link and Young Link recently, and I figured I was on a roll here, so if I could beat you, it's like I could be the strongest of the Four Swordsmen or something."

Marth grinned. The "Four Swordsmen" were Marth, Roy, Link, and Young Link. Not only did they fight together, but they had Swordsmans' Nights Out. Link had developed the idea after growing increasingly jealous of Peach, Zelda, and Samus's girls' nights out.

"Sure, just give me a few minutes," Marth answered. Roy nodded and left the room.

Marth didn't have a few minutes. The Meeting Signal went off; green lights in each of the rooms turned red and let off small beeping sounds. Marth sighed, got up off his bed, and left the room. He walked down the hallway, the other fighters emerging from their rooms as he walked by. He went down the staircase and turned left, the sounds of his boots echoing off the walls. He arrived at the large meeting room and found a few fighters already there. Master Hand, the giant white glove, was floating in front of them.

After just a few seconds, everybody was in the room. "Is everybody here?" Master Hand asked without a mouth. It was more of a rhetorical question, so he continued. "Good. I've been putting this off for awhile, but I've decided that now is the time." He paused; Marth imagined that if he had eyes, he would be scanning all of their faces. "It's time we had another tournament." Cheers went up from the crowd. Marth beamed; everybody loved tournaments. It wasn't just that they were fun; huge rewards were given to the winner, as well as elaborate trophies showing that they had won a tournament. "Not just any tournament. I've decided to create the Ultimate Tournament. During these battles, there will be no items." A few moans went up from the crowd. "Furthermore, everybody will use stock; one life." A double-whammy, then; most of the fighters liked long battles. Maybe this Ultimate Tournament wasn't going to be quite as interesting as they thought. "However," Master Hand continued, "the reward...will be one million Smash Coins."

Nobody said anything. They were expected the "Just kidding" any second. Smash Coins were the currency used in the Linking Dimension. The small Brown Coins were worth 1. The Silver Coins were worth 10, and the big Gold Coins were worth about 30. Those were the three Smash Coins more commonly used, but Grand Silver Coins, which were bigger and more elaborate, were worth 250, and Grand Gold Coins were worth 1,000. Fighters won Smash Coins in fights, tournaments, and competitions. In tournaments, the biggest reward anyone had ever gotten was 50,000 Smash Coins. But one million?

"You can say 'just kidding' now," Ness said.

"I am not kidding," Master Hand said, apparently happy his announcement had had the desired effect. "The winner of this tournament will win one million Smash Coins. As I said, it will be the Ultimate Tournament. And remember, that's a lot of money you can take home."

Master Hand could convert Smash Coins into the fighters' worlds' currency. So if Mario won, that would be a million coins. If Link won, it would be a million rupees. It was a lot of money.

"So, who wants to sign up?" Master Hand asked casually.

--

Naturally, all 24 fighters signed up. A million Smash Coins was just too good to pass up on. The first round of the tournament would take place just three days away. Everyone got to training immediately. Battles were asked for more often.

The first round would have all 24 fighters. The ones that won would move onto the second round, with 12 fighters. The third round would have 6. And finally, there would be a three-way battle in the final round. Marth didn't know who he was fighting against in the first round, but he wanted to make sure he was ready. He jumped onto the fight with Roy quickly. It turned out that Roy was way stronger than he thought and beat him--although it was almost a tie.

Everyone was sore by the end of the day. Every single fighter had taken on a challenge with somebody else. Most of them had fought more than once. Marth set his sword by his bed and fell asleep quickly.


	2. Chapter 2: Home Run Contest

Marth didn't sleep well that night.

Most of his dreams involved the Ultimate Tournament. In one dream, Marth had won the tournament, and when he awoke, he was surprised and a little disappointed it wasn't true. A good many of his dreams were nightmares; his body, bloody and bruised, thrown around by a shadowy enemy, his strength completely gone, unable to fight his foe. He awoke with a start during this dreams, sweat pouring down his face; numerous times, he checked his body to make sure he really hadn't been hurt.

So naturally, he was very groggy when he woke up the next morning. He decided to sleep in, not daring to go back to sleep. _After all,_ he thought, _a great dream which turns out to be false is a nightmare._

He still wound up falling asleep, although no more dreams came to haunt him. He woke up and let out a yelp of surprise as his alarm clock--a nifty little piece of technology, that--showed the time as 10:12 AM. He hopped out of bed and quickly started getting ready.

Everybody else was already up by the time he went downstairs. Not all of them looked awake, however; Ness's hair, while covered with a cap, was undeniably messy, and Fox...Marth couldn't help but let out a little laugh.

"What?" Fox snapped.

Marth shook his head and entered the kitchen. It was a large, spacious room directly to the right when coming down the stairs to the second floor. If coming up the stairs from below the first floor, it would be on the left.

Marth still hadn't gotten used to everything in the kitchen. The food, the drinks, the "toasters" that startled him every time they went off...everything. For instance, just recently, he had been introduced to coffee. It was Samus who had shown him the light-brown, steaming-hot drink. He was skeptical at first, but when he took a sip, he found that he really liked it. It was only after eight cups when he realized he had gone too far. His body tingled, and he spoke so quickly, he mixed up some of the words. He didn't sleep well the first night, either. He never drank coffee again afterwards, no matter how much Samus insisted that it was good in moderation.

Coffee beans also surprised him. At first, he thought they were a safer way to drink the boiling-hot, energy-giving coffee drink. When he ate one, he discovered such was not the case. He even went as far as to plant coffee beans in the ground and was dismayed when a few weeks later, there were no mugs of coffee waiting for him.

So instead, he drank water. He filled up a glass cup with water and sat down at Roy's table. But Roy was not Roy today.

"Haveyoudrankthisstuff?" Roy blurted out.

"You're speaking too fast. What?"

"Thisstuffisamazingyoureallyhavetotryit!" Roy practically shouted.

It was only then when Marth noticed the coffee mug on the table in front of him. Roy's eyes were wide open, his body trembling. He slammed his foot on the ground repeatedly to relieve excess energy.

"I'm gonna go have a talk with Samus," Marth said, standing up and taking his water.

"ReallyI'llcomewithyou!"

Roy followed Marth so closely, if Marth had stopped, Roy would have bumped into him. He arrived at the strikingly-beautiful blond's table, holding Roy's arm. He pointed to him.

"Please explain," he said.

She shrugged. "Well, I figured if _you_ weren't going to take it seriously, maybe he might," she said.

"TakewhatseriouslycoffeeIlovecoffeecanIpleasehavesomemorecoffeeI'veonlyhadtwelvecups!"

_Twelve?_ Marth mouthed. Marth had had to stop at eight; Roy was on "only" twelve?

"And yes," she added, "I told him to take it in moderation. Did he listen? No."

"Ican'thelpitIloveitpleasegivememorecoffee!"

"No more coffee for you," Marth said, and walked back to his table.

For the next half an hour or so, Marth tried to pretend that there wasn't a hyper 15-year-old jabbering about whatever came onto his mind until the subject came to squirrels. He also tried to ignore some of the irritated heads turning in his direction. He hoped the energy would wear off soon.

"Aren'tsquirrelssoawesomeIthinkthey'reawesomedoyouthinkthey're--"

"Hey, look, Roy! A coffee pot!"

The moment Roy's head turned, Marth bolted out of the kitchen. He dashed up to his bedroom and closed the door, pressing his weight against it, ear pressed to the door. When he was sure Roy wasn't following him, he turned around.

"HeyMarthwatchadoing?"

"Ah!"

How in the world had Roy made it into his room? For a minute, he considered that he might still be dreaming in his bed, but no matter how hard he pinched himself, Roy would not disappear. He had no idea what to do. He was saved by a knock on his door.

"_Please_ come in!" Marth yelled with almost too much desperation.

Roy lunged forward and opened the door so fast, he thought it would fall off. Link, startled, his hand in the air to grab onto the door knob, walked into the room.

"HeyLinkit'sbeenawhilewhatareyoudoing!?!"

"He's hyped up on twelve cups of coffee," Marth explained.

Link mouthed "Oh," then walked further in. "I was wondering if you wanted to have a match between the both of us. To prepare for the tournament, you know."

"SureI'dlovetolet'sgo!"

"He wasn't talking to you," Marth said irritably. "Yeah, let's do it. Roy, go downstairs and pester Samus for more coffee."

One second Roy was in the room, the next, he wasn't. Marth sighed and shook his head. "Reminds me of when I had coffee for the first time. I've never touched the stuff since."

--

The match between them would take place on the Hyrule Temple stage, with items off and one life for each of them. Just like Link said, this was exactly like the tournament.

And since it _was_ just like the tournament, Link wasn't going easy on him or using just his sword as they often did. Boomerangs, arrows, and bombs were flying everywhere. Marth found these projectiles a nuisance at first, since he had no projectiles of his own, but he discovered he could sneak in an attack as Link was preparing one of his items.

"Do you think you're ready for the tournament?" Marth asked conversationally as he tilted his head to the side to let a bomb fly past.

"Pretty sure," he said. "I've been hitting the Target Tests like crazy, training my archery, and everything. Do you think you're prepared?"

"Pretty sure," Marth mimicked. "Who do you think's gonna make it to the top three?"

Link parried a blow from Marth's sword. "Besides me...." He rolled his eyes. "Just kidding. But I'm thinking Donkey Kong's going to get pretty high up there. I watched him lay down a beating on Fox the other day. Wasn't pretty."

In order to prevent fighters from seriously injuring one another, Master Hand had come up with the brilliant idea of Smart Shields. These were invisible, paper-thin barriers that surrounded the fighters to give them extra protection. They minimized pain, although it could still be felt, and prevented serious injury. The occasional accident did happen, and when they did, the injured fighters were sent to the Recovery Room, where Mario would become Dr. Mario with Peach aiding him and heal the fighters. Since sometimes the injured people were Mario and Peach themselves, they had backups like Samus and Zelda. If not for the Smart Shields, Marth would have been dead from day one.

"What do you plan on doing with the money?" Marth asked. "_If_ you win it."

"Maybe buy a few little knick-knacks, but really, I don't have any use for it here," he answered. "I guess I'd take it home with me."

Several things could be bought with Smash Coins. Decorations, toys, training equipment, figures, tools, candy bars (Marth loved those Skittles)...they could all be bought with Smash Coins. There were actually a surprising number of things to be bought, and veterans like Mario and Link still hadn't bought half of it. A million Smash Coins was a lot of berry-flavored Skittles....

--

Marth came out on top during the fight with Link. He had adapted to Link's new fighting patterns instantly; once Link recognized that using his extra items wasn't working, he would use his sword only. Marth concentrated on countering the attacks and turning them back against him.

Marth was walking back to his room when he heard a familiar voice from behind a door.

"I am good. _I_ am good. I _am_ good. I am _good_."

Marth walked into Captain Falcon's room to find the fighter posing repeatedly in front of a mirror. Marth rolled his eyes.

"I am Marth. Hello, Good."

Captain Falcon stopped saluting to himself and turned his head toward Marth. "Hey, Marth! Show me your moves!"

Marth was about to turn around and head back to his room when Captain Falcon stopped him. "Hey, wait a minute, swordsman. I think you fit the bill." Marth paused and turned around. "I was just doing the Home Run Contest when I decided I had hit it far enough by myself." Marth knew what he was getting at. "I felt like I needed a challenge. So, how about you take on me in the Home Run Contest? Loser pays 50 Smash Coins."

50 Smash Coins? That was above average for a Home Run Contest. Furthermore, Marth was horrible at that contest; his moves seemed to have so much knock-back, Sandbag flew off the platform before he could grab the Home Run Bat.

"Thanks but no thanks," Marth replied. "I'm terrible at it."

"Ohhhh, I'm sure you're just bluffing," Captain Falcon teased. "Come on! One game!"

Part of Marth reminded himself that Capt. Falcon wasn't necessarily that good at it himself. He always hit Sandbag incorrectly with the bat, so Sandbag flew high into the sky and made about 8 feet. _Why not take the challenge?_ that part of him urged. _If you win the Ultimate Tournament, you'll have much more than 50 Smash Coins. And Capt. Falcon's bad at it, too. You're a fair match._

Against his smarter side, Marth said, "Okay, I accept."

Captain Falcon grinned and led the way to the stadium.

--

The stadium was huge. Incredibly huge. Master Hand had designed it to be up to 9,999 feet. It was almost two miles long, in other words. Which made Marth feel worse each time Sandbag barely made it over 900 feet. Most other fighters got it well over 1,000.

"Well? Are you ready?" Captain Falcon asked.

_No. I'm not ready._ "Yeah, sure," Marth said, still looking at the length of the field.

"I'm telling you, I've got some moves now," Captain Falcon bragged. "You ought to watch me in action. It will blow your socks off."

Now Marth was feeling even less confident. "You go first," he said, and stepped back to the edge of the platform.

The counter started. Captain Falcon had 10 seconds to whale on Sandbag as hard as he could without knocking it off the platform. He rushed forward, double-kicked it into the air, then jumped up to greet it and kicked it back down to the platform. The process repeated itself until the final seconds approached. He gave it one last good kick, then did some Marth did not expect. Instead of grabbing the bat, he charged up one of his famous Falcon Punches and smashed into the bag with a fist of fire.

Sandbag flew out of sight quickly. Marth had flinched during the Falcon Punch and fallen off the edge of the platform. On his back, he watched as Sandbag got smaller and smaller still without sinking. Marth _knew_ he couldn't get that far. After what seemed like several hours, a tiny dot in the horizon hit the ground and slid to a stop. Marth climbed back onto the platform to see a grinning Captain Falcon.

"So dynamic you couldn't stand up?" he teased. "Well, have I improved or what?"

"Yeah," Marth said shakily, "you improved."

Marth walked over to the electric Distance Scanner on the corner of the platform to see how far Sandbag had gone. 1,183 feet. Wonderful.

"Ready to hand over the 50 Smash Coins?" Captain Falcon asked rhetorically.

"I guess so," Marth said, watching the machine intently as if, any second, it would switch to a lower distance. He straightened back up and pressed a button on top of the Distance Scanner. Sandbag teleported back to the center of the platform instantly.

"Start the timer!" Captain Falcon yelled.

For a second but what seemed like forever, Marth hesitated. He couldn't beat Captain Falcon! He grabbed Sandbag, hurled him into the air, and smashed it with his sword. It teetered towards the edge of the platform. He grabbed the bat and hurried after it. He smashed Sandbag again and again, looking like a juggler starting to fail. The final seconds approached. Closing his eyes, he leaned back and hit Sandbag with the bat as hard as he could.

He fell over with the effort. He watched as Sandbag went flying. It didn't go nearly as high as Captain Falcon's, and it sank before long. He hurried back to the platform and watched the Distance Scanner. He had already set a personal record; it had broken 1,000 feet. Captain Falcon maintained his smug look but didn't appear as certain as he was before. Sandbag landed and slowly approached Captain Falcon's length. It arrived at 1,181 feet. 2 feet shy.

"You know what they say," Captain Falcon remarked. "Close, but no cigar."

Marth didn't know what a cigar was, but he watched curiously in the Distance Scanner's subscreen as Sandbag wobbled. Finally, it fell over sideways. 1,184 feet.

Marth was speechless.

So was Captain Falcon.

Nobody said anything for awhile. Even as "New Record" flashed across the screen, nobody moved. Could such an ironic thing really happen?

"Did I win?" Marth asked cautiously.

Captain Falcon nodded. "I...I guess so. I guess I have to pay you 50 Smash Coins."

Marth shook his head. "I only won because it fell over sideways. I'll take half of it. It's only fair."

Captain Falcon looked like he was about to argue, but he straightened up. "Well, sounds good to me. Go ahead and take your 25 Smash Coins."

--

Marth jingled the money in his pocket happily as he walked back to his room. He felt better about his personal new record than his acquired money. He turned into his room and saw Samus waiting for him. Roy was walking around in circles around her, hands behind his back.

"Hi, Samus," Marth greeted. "I just beat Captain Falcon at a Home Run Contest. Set a new personal record and got 25 Smash Coins."

"What did you say to him?"

Marth paused. "What?"

"Roy has been pestering me for the past hour or so to have another cup of coffee. He told me _you_ sent him here. What did you say to him?"

When Samus was stressed, it was usually best not to be in the same room as her. When Samus's anger was directed at _you_, there was no escape. Marth had to take it.

"Well, I kind of jokingly told him to go pester you for more coffee so Link and I could have a match," Marth confessed. "I guess I didn't think he'd actually do it."

"OfcourseI'ddoit!" Roy shrieked, now pacing around Marth. "I'dkillforacoffeebean!"

"Yes, good point," Samus said sarcastically. "The next time Roy drinks coffee, please deal with him."

Samus strode past Marth and walked out of his room. Roy paused next to Marth and said the shortest sentence he'd said all day:

"Coffee?"


	3. Chapter 3: Roy's First Battle

_The Ultimate Tournament starts tomorrow,_ Marth thought.

He had already gotten ready for the day and was walking down the stairs into the kitchen. The first round of the Ultimate Tournament started the very next day. Marth's fight was still a ways off, but he worried who his opponent would be. He had trained extensively, but he didn't want to wind up fighting a foe that could crush him in seconds.

He turned into the kitchen and found most of the fighters sitting at tables. Marth grabbed an apple and a glass of water and sat down at Roy's table.

"Are you okay, Roy?" Marth asked.

The teenager looked ready to fall asleep at any moment. Clearly, he hadn't slept a wink. "Oh, man," he said, rubbing a hand over his eyes, "I don't even remember half of what happened to me yesterday."

"So, no more coffee?"

"Heck no," he said, glaring at Marth. "The stuff is too good to give up. But I'm not drinking twelve cups next time."

"Let's just stick to one," he said, nodding.

As breakfast went on, the rest of the fighters came downstairs. Roy had decided to get a cup of coffee, but he drank it cautiously. Marth was ready for the hyper-lunatic Roy that he had seen yesterday, but fortunately, Roy drank it in moderation, just like Samus suggested, and retained his sanity.

The Meeting Signal started flashing and beeping. Groans and grumbles came from some of the fighters, who hadn't even had time to dig into their food, but everybody got up and wandered over to the Meeting Room. This was, no doubt, about the tournament.

"Is everybody here?" Master Hand asked rhetorically again. "As I'm sure you know, the Ultimate Tournament starts tomorrow. There's a bit of information regarding this. First of all, a clarification on the rules: One life, no items, and your arena will be selected at random. As there are twenty-four fighters in this tournament, the second round will have twelve, then six, and the last round will have a three-way battle between the three semifinalists. The one who comes out on top then wins a million Smash Coins." Everybody knew that already. "Secondly, there should be no battles today. I know you all would like to prepare for the tournament, but we can't afford somebody getting themselves hurt by accident and kicked out of the tournament." A few people groaned. "And finally, you all should probably like to know who you'll be going up against."

A mechanical arm extended out of a wall. It was holding several dozen sheets of paper. Master Hand told them all to take them, then open them up and look at them. Marth opened his up and saw the names of all twenty-four fighters split into twelve groups. What looked like a blocky, lopsided C connected one fighter to another. A line extended from this, went up, and connected to a network of lines. So, whoever won the battle would move up that line and battle whoever came out on top in the next battle. The order of the battles went like this:

Battle #1: Yoshi/Pichu

Battle #2: Ganon/Jigglypuff

Battle #3: Peach/Ice Climbers

Battle #4: Zelda/Donkey Kong

Battle #5: Young Link/Mewtwo

Battle #6: Roy/Pikachu

Battle #7: Captain Falcon/Link

Battle #8: Mr. Game and Watch/Mario

Battle #9: Marth/Falco

Battle #10: Luigi/Bowser

Battle #11: Fox/Ness

Battle #12: Samus/Kirby

"The order of the fighters' battles and who they were paired with were selected randomly," Master Hand said after a few seconds. "So if you wound up with a fighter you didn't want to battle, then, as they say, tough. You are all dismissed now. When the first round of the tournament is over, you will be given second sheets that show you the progress and who you will be facing then."

Marth read and re-read the list several times. He laughed, cringed, and felt twinges of irony at some of the pairings. The great, evil king Ganondorf was squaring off with a balloon. Zelda, he cringed at; she was facing Donkey Kong? He glanced over at Link, who seemed to be rather concerned about the same thing. Link had mentioned that Donkey Kong was probably going to make it high up there, and there was Zelda fighting him in the first round. And the twinge of irony he felt when he saw Luigi and Bowser fighting each other. It wasn't as ironic as, say, Mario and Bowser or Peach and Bowser, but it was still a little strange.

He paid particular interest, naturally, to his battle with Falco. He glanced up at Falco, who was looking back at him. The bird pointed two fingers/feathers to his own eyes, then to Marth's. Falco was a formidable opponent. He was quick, had these strange things called guns, and was excellent at melee attacks. He was also a little surly and outspoken, so arguments occasionally brewed. Fortunately, his battle was still one of the last battles in the first round, so he had plenty of time to prepare.

--

The day passed very quickly, and soon, the Ultimate Tournament began. Yoshi and Pichu were up first, fighting on the stage Fountain of Dreams from Kirby's dimension. All the fighters watched the battle with amusement, cheering on who they wanted to win. Nobody was all that surprised when Yoshi came out on top; Pichu wasn't one of the academy's best fighters. Its own electric attacks damaged itself and drained its energy. Yoshi was cheered on, declared the winner, and would move onto round two.

The second battle was between Ganondorf and Jigglypuff on the stage Yoshi's Story. Although relatively slow and _very_ lightweight, Marth had learned not to underestimate Jigglypuff just because of those factors. She had many tricks up her sleeve (at least, Marth assumed it was a she, as it sometimes wore large ribbons), and one of her moves was known to KO an opponent in one smooth hit. She could also inflate her body and float similarly to Kirby, so she wasn't knocked off as easily as most fighters presumed. Even so, Marth still wasn't overly surprised when Jigglypuff lost and Ganondorf won. He had fought Ganondorf on occasion, who was definitely a powerful foe.

The third round was between the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom and the Ice Climbers. Marth still wasn't sure if allowing two people to fight as one wasn't cheating, but they couldn't be separated from one another. This battle took place on Dreamland, again from Kirby's dimension; apparently, this stage had once been featured in the First Generation. Peach seemed to pull an unimaginable number of things from nowhere; a golf club, a tennis racket, a frying pan...even her guardian named Toad. None of this was enough to defeat the two Ice Climbers, who triumphed over her and would go onto round two.

The fourth battle with Zelda and Donkey Kong, Link had considered sitting out on. He came and watched nonetheless. The fight was on Princess Peach's Castle. Zelda got some good moves in, like her devastating Lightning Kick, but DK's heavy body, amazing strength, and longer-than-average limbs won him the match. When the match was over, Link went down to talk to Zelda.

The fifth battle came and went. Roy was particularly antsy during this battle because he knew his match was next. One of the members of the Four Swordsmen, Young Link, was squaring off against Mewtwo on the stage Corneria from Fox's dimension. Mewtwo was incredibly powerful; he rarely used his body to attack and instead relied on his psychic power. Mewtwo won easily.

And then it was Roy's turn.

His opponent was Pikachu--no Donkey Kong, no Mewtwo, but still no cakewalk. They had battled on occasion and considered each other to be merely average fighters. The fact that Pikachu could constantly attack from afar and run around at lightning speed--no pun intended--made Pikachu a dangerous enemy.

Their fight was on Pokemon Stadium, ironically enough. Roy warped onto the field, Pikachu on the opposite side, while the other fighters watched from floating stands. Roy turned to look at Marth uncertainly. Marth gave him a smile and a thumbs-up. Roy returned the gesture and turned his focus back to Pikachu.

"Okay, fighters," Master Hand announced in a booming voice, "This is the sixth battle of the first round of the Ultimate Tournament! Whoever wins this match moves onto round two and gets a step closer to that one million Smash Coins and a trophy to be proud of! Cheer on who you want to win, and let the battle begin! Three...two...one...go!!

Pikachu wasted no time rushing up to greet Roy, who wasn't prepared for the sudden movement. The rodent smashed into his legs, causing him to tumble forward. He was then attacked by a stream of electricity from Pikachu's cheek pouches. Now angry, Roy rolled back up and jump-attacked Pikachu, who saw the move coming a mile away and used a Quick Attack to hit him in midair and knock the wind out of him.

_Pikachu uses speed to his advantage,_ Marth thought. _If only Roy could realize that sooner...he needs to start feinting and countering with his sword!_

Since fighters in the stands were forbidden from shouting advice to the fighters below, Marth could only hope that Roy had mysteriously developed telepathy and could read his mind. Roy was still down, having been hit hard in the chest, but he found the strength to smash Pikachu with his sword as he jumped at him. He flipped back up and began furiously using his Double-Edged Dance, which hit Pikachu repeatedly and sent him soaring away.

"That's it!" Marth shouted.

Pikachu got back to his feet, then rushed towards Roy, rolled around him, and head butted him in the back. When Pikachu tried to jump on him again, Roy kicked him away with his foot and stood back up. He stood in a ready stance, which told Marth that he had some strategy in mind and was wising up to Pikachu's tactics. He ran towards Pikachu, then stopped quickly as the electric mouse dashed at him again. He protected himself with his sword, which Pikachu jumped into without thinking, and countered by swinging his sword. Roy's counter was more powerful than Marth's because of the Sword of Seal's fiery capabilities, but Roy didn't quite know how to use it as well and sometimes failed in his counter.

Obviously, this time, it worked. Pikachu was sent flying and felt off the edge of the stage. He used a Quick Attack to zoom back on and was ready for more. Roy ran towards Pikachu another time, but instead of stopping, he jumped into the air and countered again. Pikachu fell for it a second time and was knocked further off the stage. Pikachu managed to grab onto the edge of the stage. If Roy could knock Pikachu down here, the match would be over quickly. Unfortunately, he didn't reach his enemy in time, and Pikachu got back on with a jump kick and knocked Roy backwards. Before he could react, Pikachu used his Thunder move and rained lightning on himself, zapping Roy, who was nearby, and knocking him off the stage. Roy wasn't quite as good at recovering as Pikachu.

"Come on, Roy!" Marth encouraged. "You can do it!" He didn't want to see his friend lose in the first round. Roy would be crushed.

Roy used his Blazer move and did a fiery uppercut with his sword to propel himself into the air and grab onto the edge of the stage. Pikachu was already there, ready to send Roy crashing to his doom. Roy rolled back on, dodged Pikachu's move, and slammed Pikachu with his sword as hard as he could. Pikachu went flying off the edge of the stage, close to the boundaries that would KO it and make Roy win. He prepared to use another Quick Attack, but Roy saw it coming and leaped off the stage after it.

What he was doing was a risky move. If Roy missed Pikachu, he may very well KO himself, and Pikachu would win. If he succeeded in attacking Pikachu, his enemy would be KO'd before he did, making him the winner. Marth held his breath.

Everything seemed to go in slow motion. Roy raised his sword above his head, coming closer to Pikach. Marth hoped he understood that Pikachu would manage to use his Quick Attack before Roy reached him. Pikachu launched forward. Roy brought his sword down and crashed it onto Pikachu, who flew farther away and out of the stage's boundaries. Roy tumbled down and technically lost his one life, but he was still declared the winner.

"And the winner is..." Master Hand boomed, "Roy! As soon as Roy warps back in here from his risky move, we will go through the official transition, and he will move onto the second round."

Roy appeared on a floating platform back down onto the stage. Marth could see the relief written on his face.

"Congratulations, Roy," Master Hand said, "you are the winner of this match. You will move onto the second round and have your battle another three days from now. The next match will be between Captain Falcon and Link!"

--

"That was amazing!" Marth congratulated. "Risky and a little stupid, I'll admit, but I didn't know you'd have the timing right for hitting Pikachu in the middle of his Quick Attack."

"Thanks," said Roy.

Pikachu wandered up to Roy, barely coming above his knee. He extended his tiny hand for a handshake. Marth and Roy were wary, because sometimes when Pikachu was angry, he would offer a handshake, then shock the other guy's socks off. Roy accepted it anyway and was relieved when Pikachu left him alone.

"I'll wish you luck on your match," Roy said. "Especially because it's just a few hours away."


	4. Chapter 4: Marth: Round One

There were only two fights before Marth's: One between Link and Captain Falcon, and the other between Mario and Mr. Game and Watch. He went to the floating stands to watch his friend Link fight on the stage Brinstar. Marth hated that arena; more serious injuries happened there than in any other stage. Boiling lava rose from beneath the floating chunk of rock, which often led to burns that got through the Smart Shields. If there was a burned patient in the Recovery Room, they had likely had a fight on Brinstar.

"You know what I think would be cool?" Roy said next to Marth, watching Link dodge another Falcon Punch. "If three of the Four Swordsmen got to duke it out in the final round."

"Of course, one of us wouldn't be there," Marth said, "but you're right, it would be kinda nice."

"Chances are that won't happen," a surly voice said from behind him. Marth turned around to see Falco, his first opponent. "Twenty-four fighters in the tournament, some with more skill than others. Now, I'm not saying that I'm more skilled than you are," he added, "but I'm just saying, likely, none of us will make it there. But I'm determined to make it past the first round. So be prepared, sword guy."

"I will, gun guy," Marth replied. "And hey, if one of us loses, no hard feelings, right? Just a match, right?"

"Just a match with really high stakes involved," Falco muttered. "But you're right, no hard feelings. If I lose, I just have to train harder until I can kick everybody's butt at once."

Marth turned and flinched as a colorful fighter flew at them and hit the boundaries. Link stood on the top platform of Brinstar, beaming.

"Well, that's two of the Four Swordsmen moving on," Roy said. "I hope it's three. Good luck on your match."

--

Marth got to watch Mario and Mr. Game and Watch beat each other to smithereens. Because Mr. Game and Watch was invisible if looked at from the side, he was extremely lightweight, and was knocked off the Kongo Jungle stage easily.

"And the winner of this match is Mario!" Master Hand announced. "Congratulations, Mario! You will move onto round two. The next match is between Marth and Falco!"

Marth glanced uneasily at Falco and gave him a thumbs-up. Falco returned the gesture with a feathers-up. They were teleported back to the academy. The next match wouldn't take place for about half an hour, which gave them a very brief intermission to get ready.

Falco was a difficult opponent. Marth had a sword and could only attack at close-range; Falco had a Blaster which fired lasers, a "Reflector" that bounced back projectiles, and a Fire Cloak which launched him in a burst of flames. The trick to beating him was to dodge all of his projectiles, duck under his melee moves, and strike. Which was easier said than done.

"Your match is ready," Fox's voice said from behind him.

"Already?"

"Yeah. Falco's getting impatient. He doesn't have what we call a long fuse, so you should probably get going before he starts getting all whiny."

Marth ran with Fox to the Teleporter and pressed the button for Fourside, as that was where his match would take place. He warped and wound up on the top of a tall building. He saw Falco on a building opposite him.

"About time, slowpoke," Falco complained.

Marth unsheathed his sword as Master Hand began the announcements. "Welcome to the ninth battle of the Ultimate Tournament! Our fighters here are Marth and Falco, ready to duke it out to move up on Fourside City! Are you two ready?"

"I've _been_ ready," Falco grumbled, glaring at Marth.

"Yeah, I'm ready," Marth agreed.

"Then let's get started! Three...two...one...go!!"

Falco was down on Marth's building in a second. He ducked his head under Falco's kicking foot, then swiped him in the leg. When he jumped towards Falco to deliver a powerful blow, he saw it coming and flipped up backwards, kicking Marth in the chest and sending him over a gap and into another building, missing falling to his doom by inches. The ledge he stood on was maybe a foot long. Not much room.

Marth shifted his head as Falco's foot collided with the wall his head was just in front of. He lost his balance and tumbled off the building. When he regained his sense of balance, he used his Dolphin Slash to propel himself back up using the move's momentum. The next thing he knew, he was enveloped in fire by Falco's Fire Bird move. He landed on his back on the building he had started on. He tried to kick Falco in the stomach with both of his legs, but Falco grabbed them, swung Marth under him, and began firing lasers into him using his Blaster.

To escape, Marth slammed his sword into Falco's back, then rolled backwards and flipped Falco behind him and off the building. He stood, sword in hand, waiting for Falco to use his Fire Bird to come back on. Instead, Falco zoomed forward at blinding speed using his Falco Phantasm, knocking Marth off his feet and into the air. He received a double-kick from Falco and soared higher. Lights burst in front of his eyes, so he didn't have time to prepare himself for Falco kicking him over the tall central building and onto the one next to it.

_Wow, is he good_, Marth thought as he struggled to his feet. Falco was already over the building and working his way toward him. He pulled out his Blaster and fired several lasers at him. Marth dodged these narrowly, then leapt at him. Falco aimed his Blaster at Marth as the flying fighter came closer, but at the last second, Marth switched the angle of his body, dodged the laser, and smashed him twice with his sword. While Falco was still down, he got him using his Dancing Blade.

"I was beginning to think this would be too easy," Falco said. "Good. I finally get a challenge out of you."

"Well, don't get overconfident. That's one key to losing."

Falco twirled around and swung a leg at him. Marth blocked it using his sword and countered it, swinging his sword at Falco. He brought his sword crashing down at Falco, who flipped up backwards, kicked off the building's wall, and slammed into him. Now Marth was falling down another gap between buildings, trying to regain his equilibrium again. He used another Dolphin Slash and grabbed onto the building's edge again. Falco's boot met his fingers, and Marth fell again. He climbed onto the opposite building and was sent flying forward yet again by another one of Falco's kicks. He was knocked far off the building, heading towards the blast line.

"Marth! You can do it!" came a voice from the stands. Marth didn't look up to see who it was, because he was currently tumbling, battered and exhausted, down towards the bottom boundary. He worked up a last bit of strength and resolve and used another Dolphin Slash to climb onto the building's edge. Before Falco could attack him again, he smashed him with his sword, then jumped at him. He was met by one of Falco's lasers and fell backwards. Falco stood back up and walked over to Marth, who attempted to kick him using both legs again. Falco saw it coming, but so did Marth; when he grabbed his legs, Marth thrust his sword at Falco, then kicked Falco towards the edge of the building and hit him with the tip of his sword, where it was strongest. Falco went soaring but used his Fire Bird to try and come back on. Marth leapt into the air above him and sliced his sword downward, doing a "Meteor Smash" and sending Falco crashing down quickly to the bottom blast line. He climbed back onto the building.

"And the winner of this match is Marth!" Master Hand shouted. "Congratulations, Marth! You have won the match and will be moving onto the second round! That brings you one step closer to your goal! The next match will be between Luigi and Bowser!!"

--

"Hey, nice job, Marth!" Roy congratulated. "I thought he was going to beat you for a second. You kinda took a beating there."

"He was very tough," Marth remarked dryly. He noticed Falco out of the corner of his eye. "You did well, Falco. You almost had me beaten for a second. You may have to train until you can kick everybody's butt at once, but you won't have to train long."

"Yeah, thanks," said Falco. "Well, not everybody can make it to the second round. I guess you beat me fair and square." He glared at Marth. "But when this round is over, you and I are having a rematch, just the two of us. Got it?"

"Yup."

Falco walked away. Marth sighed. "I am _really_ tired. I'll watch the other matches, but after that, it's a nap for me."

"You're not in need of Dr. Mario, are you?" a friendly Italian voice called.

Marth turned and smiled at the short plumber. "No, I think I'm fine. Just a nap. And something to eat. I'm starving."

"You can have some potato chips or something during the next match," Roy said.

Marth was puzzled. "Potato chips? What are those?"

Roy was incredulous. "You honestly have not tried a potato chip."

"No. Do they make you hyper like coffee?"

"No, but they make your fingers greasy. Come on, Marth! What else haven't you tried here!?!"

"Well," Mario suggested, "we could always bring all sorts of things out for the First Round Party. You know, pretzel rods, chocolate bars...pasta...."

"Wait a minute," Marth said, "there's going to be a party?"

"Sure there is!" he exclaimed. "Mamma mia! You haven't seen Peach working like a crazed cook? Where do you think she's been?"

"Alright. Roy, go ask Samus what else there is to eat that they can bring out for the party."

Roy shrugged and trotted off. Marth realized he still had his sword out and sheathed it.

"Hey, Marth!" Link called. He and Zelda were trotting up to him. "Congratulations. That makes three of the Four Swordsmen moving onto the second round."

"It probably would have been four," Young Link said, appearing out of nowhere like he always did, "if I hadn't been paired with Mewtwo. The guy's supposed to be the strongest Pokemon in existence, for crying out loud! And I have a sword about the length of a butterknife!"

"We'll make it up to you during the party," Link promised.

"Am I the only one not in the know?" Marth asked. Everybody else shrugged. "I'm gonna go take a short nap. Wake me when the next match happens."


	5. Chapter 5: Noises in the Kitchen

There were just three more battles before the first round was over: Luigi and Bowser, Fox and Ness, and Samus and Kirby. True to his word, Marth took a brief nap in his room in the half-hour intermission everyone was allowed between fights. His nap didn't seem to last long enough as Link woke him up for the battle between plumber and Koopa King. Bowser came out on top (which greatly worried the Mario Bros. and Peach) and would move onto the second round. The semifinal fight between Fox and Ness was pretty epic; Fox would fire his Blaster, which Ness would absorb and then use his PK Fire technique, which Fox would reflect...a good five minutes or so passed before anybody hit each other. Ultimately, Fox won the battle.

It was nighttime outside the academy by the time all the battles were finished. According to Marth's clock, it was nine o' clock. He was bushed and exhausted, but still looking forward to the party he had heard about only a couple of hours ago. He felt a small sense of relief when he learned that Fox, Falco, Ganondorf, and Mewtwo were also clueless as to the party's existence.

In his room, Marth could hear everyone bustling excitedly downstairs. The party was going to be on any minute. The kitchen's cooks--Peach, Zelda, and Donkey Kong (who had displayed a previously-unsuspected talent for cooking, especially recipes involving bananas)--had been very busy, just as Mario had said. Peach in particular was very picky about this, that, and the other: "We don't have enough dip!" or "Red and _green_! Red and _green_ balloons! Not yellow!" Kirby had wanted to be a cook as well, and although he was quite good at it, when it came to light that it was next to impossible for him not to eat what he just created, they decided to pass him on that offer.

Mr. Game and Watch wandered into Marth's room. He was invisible for a second as he came in sideways, then turned again so Marth could see him. He rang his bell excitedly.

"What?" Marth asked. His only response was another unnaturally-loud bell ring. "What's happening? Is the party on?"

Mr. Game and Watch went through a complicated series of 2D movements which he shifted between in the blink of an eye. Marth had no earthly idea what he was trying to say. It was times like these that he sorely wished he could speak.

"You want me to go somewhere," Marth confirmed. When he rang his bell again, Marth assumed he had gotten at least one thing right. "Is it downstairs?" Another bell ring. "Does...does it involve the party?" Mr. Game and Watch rang his bell ecstatically. "_Is_ it the party?" He shook his head left to right. "Do I have to go into the kitchen?" A final bell ring. Marth got up off the bed and walked downstairs, then turned into the kitchen. Peach and Zelda were placing decorations and balloons, while Donkey Kong was carrying a glass bowl full of things that must have been potato chips in his huge arms.

"Did you guys want me down here?" Marth asked.

"Oh, you're here!" Peach exclaimed. "We were wondering if we could use your sword as a decoration. Just temporarily," she confirmed, "but we're putting up little items of the various fighters that went on to round two. We have Mario's hat, Link's shield, Fox's helmet...we've already asked Roy about his Sword of Seals, and he said it was fine."

"Sure," he said, and took his sword out of his sheath and gave it to Peach. She put it up on a wooden plank jutting out from a wall next to Roy's Sword of Seals. She frowned and began readjusting it until it was to her liking.

"Um, Peach?" Marth asked. "Why exactly did you send Mr. Game and Watch to call me down here? He isn't exactly the best communicator."

"Because he was close by," she replied. "The party should start within twenty minutes or so. We're almost done. Donkey Kong! Don't eat the muffins just yet! We're saving those for everyone else!"

The big ape grunted and tossed the muffin back onto the plate it was on. Peach began scolding him about how disgusting that was, and DK pretended to listen. That was his most effective technique for whenever Peach got mad at him; look at her and pretend like he was listening but honestly not absorbing a word she said.

"I think Peach has gone a little wild with the decorating," Marth noted to Zelda.

"I'm going to be glad when we're done," she sighed. "She is _really_ picky when it comes to cooking, cleaning, and decorating."

The Meeting Signal went off again. Marth trotted out of the kitchen and into the Meeting Room. After awhile, all the fighters congregated there and stood before Master Hand.

"Today ends the first round of the Ultimate Tournament," Master Hand said. "I have decided that we will have the second round two days from now. The same rules apply: I don't want any matches in between then except for those who did not move onto round two."

"I guess our match is postponed," Falco muttered from behind Marth.

"I have gone over who moved on and who stayed behind, so I have updated the charts I gave you a couple of days ago," Master Hand continued. The robotic arm came out of the wall again, holding twenty-four more sheets of paper. "Even though only twelve people will be fighting, everyone has a right to know who will be fighting who. Go ahead and take a look at them."

The names had been rearranged on the chart. Those who had lost remained on the bottom, but those who had won moved up to a higher level next to another fighter. Marth studied the pairings closely:

Battle #1: Yoshi/Ganondorf

Battle #2: Ice Climbers/Donkey Kong

Battle #3: Mewtwo/Roy

Battle #4: Link/Mario

Battle #5: Marth/Bowser

Battle #6: Fox/Kirby

"Since there will only be six fights instead of twelve," Master Hand explained, "we won't be using up so much time. We will start just slightly later into the day and hopefully finish up somewhere in the late afternoon. That is all. Commence with your party."

--

Marth only had a few minutes to himself in his room. The party was ready quickly. Marth went downstairs and into the kitchen to find the place completely decorated. Instead of having the individual tables and chairs, carpets had been laid down to make the kitchen a little more comfortable and homey, and there were only a few low wooden tables with snacks on them. The chairs were lined up against a wall, so whoever wanted one could just take one.

Twelve items lined the wooden shelf Marth had seen earlier. From left to right, they had an egg Yoshi had created, some of Ganondorf's armor, the Ice Climbers' hammers, Donkey Kong's tie (which he had parted with reluctantly), what appeared to be a small, hovering Shadow Ball Mewtwo had created, Roy's Sword of Seals, Link's shield (apparently, Peach had removed Marth's sword in order to do everything numerically), Mario's hat, Marth's sword Falchion, a Koopa Shell representing Bowser, Fox's helmet, and Kirby's large hammer.

"The party's ready!" Peach announced when everybody came. "Now, there are a few rules I'd like to announce. First of all, Kirby, restrain yourself." Whether the eight-inch-heigh ball of pink heard her or not, Marth didn't know; he was concentrating intently on the plate of chocolate chip banana muffins. Peach frowned and continued. "Secondly, don't touch Mewtwo's Shadow Ball up on the shelf, because it'll zap you." Peach rubbed her gloved hand gingerly where she had likely been zapped. "Only Mewtwo can move it. Don't make the same mistake I did. Thirdly, leave some snacks for everybody else. And fourthly, have fun!"

Out of the corner of his eye, Marth noticed Kirby sneaking towards the muffins. Marth lightly placed his foot on Kirby's head. "Going somewhere?" he asked rhetorically. Kirby grumbled, thwarted, and turned around.

"Alright," Roy said from beside Marth, "I talked to Samus earlier, and she suggested Peach and Zelda put out a bunch of snacks you haven't tried before. We've got pretzels, 'cheese puffs,' chocolate chip cookies, and then, best of all," Roy said, adding fake drama to his voice, "the grape soda."

There were snacks as far as the eye could see. Marth decided to try the pretzels first. They tasted like dry, crunchy bread; Marth grimaced at the thought and decided he didn't like pretzels. The cheese puffs were completely the opposite; Marth found himself nearly hooked on the orange-powdered balls. He also went on to try tortilla chips dipped in spicy salsa, various kinds of cookies, and other snacks, avoiding the grape soda for as long as possible. When Roy's urging became impossible to ignore, he grabbed a plastic cup, poured some of the purple-colored liquid into it, and held it up.

"Is it like juice?" Marth asked cautiously.

"Kind of," Roy replied. "It has more of a kick to it. Makes you hyper."

Marth turned to dump the soda into a potted plant, but Roy caught him and held the cup. "But not _that_ hyper. Not like coffee. Just drink it, it'll be nice."

Marth stared at his own reflection in the grape soda for a good minute or so. The bright purple color made it look like a potion that would turn him into a bat if he drank it. He was starting to think that anything Roy enjoyed eating was something dangerous. He lifted the cup up slowly, then took a tiny sip out of it.

"This tastes nothing like grapes," Marth complained.

"Yeah it does," Roy protested. "It just has that kick to it. You only took a small sip. Take a big gulp."

Marth hesitated, then lifted it up and downed the whole thing. To his surprise, he found that not only did he remain a human being, it actually tasted good. He lifted it up again and drank the last couple of drops.

"Well?"

"It's good."

"Told you."

As much as he enjoyed it, he made sure not to drink too much of it for fear of turning into Hyper Marth, and later, Zombie Marth. He was surprised to find that not only was there grape-flavored soda, but there were orange and strawberry flavors as well, not to mention "root beer." The root beer he thought was disgusting and avoided completely.

"How's the party?" Peach asked.

"Pretty good so far," Marth admitted. "I'm currently trying every last bit of food I can find. I think you, Zelda, and DK did a good job."

"Thank you," the princess smiled, flattered. "Do you like the color of the balloons? Do you think the green goes well with the red, or should I have made it a different color?"

"No, they're great," Marth said. "I think balloons go pretty well with anything."

"It appears that balloons are very versatile," Luigi said in an unnaturally high-pitched voice. He was holding a deflated balloon in his hand.

"Oh, sweet! I have to try that," Roy exclaimed, and dashed off to find a balloon.

"Don't take any of the decoration balloons!" Peach called. "By the way, Marth, you might want to go over and see Link. I think he's doing something strange for his younger self."

Marth walked over to a table where several people sat around. Young Link was among one of the spectators, standing eagerly over Link's shoulder. He didn't know what was going on at first until he saw Link staring into a styrofoam cup. Was he drinking soda? Marth stood beside Link and looked into the cup.

"Hey, what are you--"

His eyes widened as he realized that the cup was full of salsa. Link was staring into it with a look that can only be described as procrastination. Young Link had a wide grin on his face.

"Um, Link? Are you going to...?"

"Yup," Young Link said. "He said he'd do anything at all during the party to make up for me losing at the tournament. And so now...."

"He's eating salsa," Marth finished.

It wasn't just a small cup of salsa, either. The styrofoam cup was of medium size, and it was filled halfway to the top. It was quite a lot of salsa to chug.

Finally, Link swooped the cup up to his mouth and started drinking it. Young Link's smile and Marth's eyes grew wider as the red stuff went down his throat. When it was all gone, Link slammed the cup onto the table. His body shivered once at what he had just downed.

"I did say _anything_," Link croaked.

"I wonder if Dr. Mario will be seeing you in the Recovery Room anytime soon," Marth muttered.

--

The party was excellent. Food was eaten, jokes were told, food was eaten, tournament battles were recalled, and food was eaten. By the end of the party, Marth was completely stuffed and wishing he had not tried _everything_ on the tables.

Everybody else had left the kitchen. The food had been packed up and stored as leftovers and future desserts. Everybody had been given back their items, and Mewtwo had removed the dangerous Shadow Ball on the wooden shelf. The balloons and other decorations remained, and they were going to be taken down the next day.

Marth sipped on a small cup of grape soda he had poured for himself. The stuff wasn't half bad, actually. He leaned against the edge of the counter behind him and recalled the day's events. The Ultimate Tournament seemed ages ago, and yet it had happened only earlier that day. Marth was to be fighting Bowser in the next round, and Roy, Mewtwo. They were both very powerful fighters. Only three people could make it to the finals, and of those three, there could only be one winner. Marth likely didn't have a chance, but it was nice imagining what he could do with the money.

A clanging sound made Marth jump. It sounded like a pot falling off a counter from the cooking room. Only the cooks were allowed in that room, so whoever was back there was getting into trouble. If there was anyone back there at all, of course; maybe the pot had just been badly placed and had slid off the counter. Suspicious, Marth walked into the cook's room and looked around the dark place.

"Anybody in here?" Marth asked. He didn't expect an answer, of course, because if somebody _was_ back there when they shouldn't be, they weren't going to give themselves away so easily. It could always be one of the cooks, though. No response came, so he suspected it was somebody sneaking around. Kirby, maybe, trying to steal all the food while no one was looking? "Hello?" he called again.

He wandered around the kitchen for a little bit more, checking every corner. He found no one. He decided that since _he_ wasn't allowed back in the cooking room anyway, he should probably leave before he got into trouble. And if somebody really was doing something they shouldn't be doing, it would all become evident in the morning, right?

Marth walked out of the cooking room, out of the kitchen, and up to his room. He was completely tired. He laid down on his bed and fell asleep very quickly.


	6. Chapter 6: Missing Weapons

Ten o' clock. Again.

Marth groaned as he realized how late he had slept. The party must have been pretty exhausting. Not to mention that they had stayed up until close to midnight. He reluctantly pulled the covers off his bed and began getting ready.

He felt as if he was forgetting something, though, as he was brushing his teeth. Something that had happened just the other night, during the party. He couldn't place his finger on it, but he decided that maybe it wasn't so important if he had forgotten about it. He finished brushing his teeth and went downstairs to have breakfast.

Which reminded him of the incident he had forgotten about, of course. The noises in the kitchen. Somebody was back there who wasn't supposed to be goofing around. He or she had clumsily knocked a pot off a counter and surprised Marth. He decided he'd ask around about it. The first person he asked, of course, was Kirby.

"Hey, Kirby," Marth asked as Kirby came back to his table with a plate bigger than he was. "I'm just curious...I heard some noises in the kitchen last night, where only the cooks are supposed to be, and I was wondering if you were sneaking into something back there." Silence. Then Kirby shook his head--or rather, much of his body. "Okay, just checking," Marth said, although his suspicions about Kirby were still there. He walked over to Roy's table. Roy was drinking yet another cup of coffee.

"You didn't hear anything last night, did you?" Marth asked as he sat down.

"I was out like a light," he answered. "Slept soundly. A little too soundly. I woke up at ten."

"So did I. But I heard some noises in the kitchen after the party was over. I'm positive it wasn't one of the cooks, especially because I saw no one in there."

"It might have been Kirby," Roy suggested, glancing over at Kirby's table. Kirby was currently inhaling everything on his plate and going back for thirds.

"That's what I was thinking," Marth agreed, "but Kirby says he wasn't in there last night."

"Doesn't mean he wasn't lying to get away with it. You say you didn't see anybody in there last night, and he's only eight inches tall. Fits the bill."

An idea came to Marth. "If he really was in there, and he really was eating something, we know he'd take a big chunk out of the pantry. Let me go ask Peach if any food was missing."

Marth stood up and walked over to Peach's table. She was sitting with the two other ladies, Zelda and Samus. "Hey, Peach," he greeted. "I heard noises in the kitchen after the party last night, so I was curious if somebody was getting into the food. Was any food missing this morning?"

"No. It wouldn't surprise me, though, if somebody decided they wanted an extra muffin."

Now Marth was even more curious. The person who had been back there hadn't been there for food. What was that person doing, then? Perhaps it didn't matter a whole lot if nothing bad happened from it. He shrugged, got himself a glass of water, and sat down at Roy's table again.

"What's the verdict?" Roy asked.

"Peach says no food was missing," he responded. "Which begs to ask the question, why was the person back there?"

Roy shrugged. "I guess we'll find out."

--

There wasn't a whole lot to do for the rest of the day. Battles were off for all fighters still in the tournament, so they were left to improvise. Marth decided to play a rather interesting board game called Monopoly: Super Smash Bros. Edition, where several players could attempt to buy various places in the dimensions the fighters came from. Marth got Roy, Fox, and Samus to play it with him. Master Hand had developed this strange version of Monopoly and even shaped the little metal pieces like the twenty-four fighters in the academy. Marth grabbed the piece in the likeness of him, and the other players did the same as him.

Fox went first and bought Rogueport from Mario's dimension for 80 Smash Coins. Marth went next and bought Hyrule Castle for 110. Roy went straight to jail when he got a rotten Community Chest card, and Samus had to pay up to Marth when she landed on Hyrule Castle.

The Smash Bros. version of Monopoly was a very fun game because many jokes could be told at every turn.

"What kind of a name is 'Venom'?" Roy asked with distaste when he landed on the planet from the Lylat System.

"Don't ask me, I didn't name it," Fox replied.

And when Samus bought Altea from Marth's dimension, he groaned and said, "You just enslaved my people again."

Monopoly was an endless game. Samus was in the lead, having taken over Altea, the Kongo Jungle, monopolized Corneria, Venom (which Roy had passed), and Katina, Fourside, and even monopolized planets from her own dimension: Zebes, Tallon IV, and SR388. Roy had gone to jail five times in thirteen turns and was, of course, in last place. It was a game that never ended until somebody got tired.

A loud shout of anger came from downstairs. The voice was unmistakably Falco's, so Fox was the first to get up and head for the stairs. Marth and the others decided to follow him.

"Did he just stub his toe, or what?" Roy asked.

"I don't think he stubbed his toe," Fox muttered. "He takes _those_ in stride and pretends like nothing happened. Something's really bothering him."

The four of them hustled down the stairs. Fox walked into Falco's room and motioned for them to stay behind. "What's wrong?" Fox's voice asked.

"My Blaster is gone!" Falco's voice yelled. "Someone took it!"

"You sure you didn't misplace it?" Roy asked from outside the door. Marth elbowed him in the ribs.

"Oh, great. A search party," Falco muttered sarcastically. Marth and the others walked into the room. "No, I didn't misplace it!" Falco yelled at them. "All the time, it's right here, on this shelf, laid out as plainly and as neatly as can be! When I use it in a match, I return it right here!"

"You didn't take it upstairs or anything?" Roy asked sheepishly.

"Why would I!?!" Falco snapped. "It stays in my room except for matches! Some--one--took--it!!"

"Who might have taken it?" Samus asked calmly.

"Anyone! Ness might have wanted to play with it! Kirby may have thought it looked like candy! Marth may have hid it to avoid our match!"

"I was looking forward to that," Marth responded.

"Whatever," Falco mumbled, his energy spent. "But somebody took it, and when I found out who did, I am going to--"

"Yes," Fox interrupted hastily. "Listen, I'll help look for it. Are you guys gonna help?" he asked, turning around and looking at Marth, Roy, and Samus. They all nodded. "I'm sure we're gonna find it," Fox continued. "At any rate, you still have your Fire Cloak and Reflector."

"You wanna bet?" Falco snapped angrily. "They go on the shelf with my Blaster. They're not exactly there anymore, are they?"

They didn't know what to say to that. After a long pause, Fox turned around to Marth, Roy, and Samus and said, "Let's start looking. Let's go around and ask some people, check in some places, and find his stuff."

--

"Hey, Kirby," Marth said, knocking on his door and entering before a reply came, "I came to ask another question. Did you hear Falco's angry shout downstairs?" Kirby nodded. "He's lost his weapons. Somebody took them. Do you know where they might be?"

A small frown came on Kirby's face. "I'm not a criminal," he said in his high-pitched voice. "I didn't steal any weapons or any food."

"I didn't say that you did," Marth said hastily, "but I was just wondering if you might know who might have taken them. Was anybody afraid of him or something?"

Kirby shrugged. "Not that I know of."

As Marth thanked him and walked out of his room, he started to wonder...were the noises in the kitchen and the theft of Falco's weapons linked? Was the person in the kitchen the one responsible for stealing Falco's items? He decided that he'd better talk to the others about it. He found Roy asking Mewtwo about the missing weapons in the lobby.

"Hey, Roy," Marth said. "I've just thought of something. Wait near the tables over there, where we played our Monopoly game, and I'll go get Fox and Samus."

When all four of them were assembled, Marth sat down in one of the chairs and looked at them all. "First of all, what have you found so far?" he asked. "We'll start with you, Fox."

"I questioned Mario, Luigi, Zelda, and _attempted_ to get an answer out of Pikachu," Fox answered. "I was on my way to Bowser when you found me. They all seem to be genuinely puzzled about this."

"And you, Samus?"

"I asked the Ice Climbers, Ganondorf, and Peach. They don't seem to know anything about it, either."

"And Roy?"

"Young Link, Mewtwo, and Donkey Kong. Innocent like the rest."

"I only questioned one person," Marth admitted. "Kirby. But it was Kirby who made me realize something. You know the noises in the kitchen after the party I was talking about?"

"What noises?" Fox asked. Marth had forgotten that only he, Roy, Samus, Peach, and Zelda, and whoever was sneaking around knew about it.

"Well, I think whoever was back there stole Falco's items," Marth continued. "Our culprit sure was elusive. Didn't want to be caught."

"And maybe those items are in the kitchen," Fox wondered aloud. "Well, let's go look there. It would sure make Falco happy to have his Blaster back."

The foursome went to the kitchen and started looking under tables, in cupboards, behind curtains, and everywhere possible. They found nothing. Marth suggested that since the culprit was in the cooks' room, they should search in there. Marth was also on the lookout for hiding spots he could have missed.

"I'm starting to think maybe his weapons just got up and walked away," Roy groaned, "because they're not here."

"There are still plenty of places we haven't checked yet," Samus reassured him. "And we haven't questioned everybody. We will find it."

"On the bright side," Fox said, "I've found a couple of old Smash Coins hidden under the refrigerator. Now I'm two coins richer."

"And I found a pencil," Roy remarked dryly, holding up a cobweb-covered pencil. "Now I'm one writing-device richer."

"We'll keep looking tomorrow," Marth said. "We may not find it today, but we'll find it eventually, just like Samus said."

"Hey, what are you guys doing back here?" Zelda's voice asked.

Marth could tell she was quite surprised to see four people poking around in every crevice and corner of the kitchen. He stood up, stretched his back, and sighed. "You know how Falco lost his items?" She nodded. "I put two-and-two together and decided that whoever was sneaking around back here before must have stolen his stuff. We've been looking around but finding nothing."

"Except two coins and a pencil," Roy corrected.

"Well, we're about to make dinner," Zelda said as Peach came in. "I suppose you can come back and check later. Good luck finding Falco's things."

--

Dinner felt awkward. Falco was glaring at every individual in the room, apparently trying to use a natural Guilt-O-Sensor to determine who was the criminal. Eventually, Fox's calm reassurances started to become annoyed retorts. There was an uncomfortable silence at their table--Fox, Marth, Roy, and Samus were all sitting at Falco's table. Marth was trying to determine who could have taken his items, but drew a blank each time he tried to come up with a conclusion. He was still pondering the mysterious situation as he eventually went to his room to turn in for the night.

They had found nothing more in the cooks' room. This was frustrating the group, but they were determined not to give up. Marth wouldn't be able to concentrate on it much the next day because of the second round of the Ultimate Tournament, but he was going to find those items, no matter what.


	7. Chapter 7: Roy vs Mewtwo

The next day, neither Marth, Roy, Fox, Samus, or anybody else aware of the possible link between the kitchen noises and Falco's missing weapons had time to look; it was round two of the Ultimate Tournament. Master Hand decided to start the first fight at ten o' clock, giving the fighters plenty of time to sleep in and get ready. There was an aura of anxiety surrounding the kitchen.

"Are you ready, Marth?" Roy asked.

The Four Swordsmen were all sitting together at the same table. Only Young Link wasn't moving onto the second round; the other swordsmen needed some good luck wishes and pats on the back.

"Now, remember," Marth said, "only one person out of the entire tournament can be the champion. Likely, it isn't going to be one of us. So if we fail...we fail. Someone else moves on. No big deal."

Of course, nobody entirely believed that, but it was true, in a sense. Only one winner in a tournament. Still, they all had their dreams, which they weren't willing to let go of so easily. Marth sighed and took another sip out of his water.

"Even so, it's a little embarrassing to lose right in the first round," Young Link pointed out.

"This is the _second_ round," Link answered. "And besides, I...made it up to you during the party."

"That was totally worth it," Young Link muttered.

"Anyway," Roy interrupted, "I'm getting a double-serving of coffee this time around to prepare for it. Now before you can object, Marth, Samus said it was okay; two cups of coffee is fine. I'm not going to explode."

"Not yet," Marth said, pretending to hide it in a cough. Roy heard it and glared at him.

It was nine o' clock. There was only an hour left before the first battle would begin. In this case, the first battle was between Yoshi and Ganondorf. Marth didn't voice it, but he was positive that Yoshi would lose and Ganondorf would move onto round three. Marth glanced at the clock nervously and downed the rest of his water.

After everybody was done, Marth, Roy, Samus, Fox, Falco, Link, and Young Link went searching for Falco's weapons again. Half an hour passed very quickly, frustrating the searchers; according to Fox, they would have to intrude in everyone's personal space and snoop around their rooms if they even had a chance of finding Falco's things. Nobody (except Falco himself) was ready to do that at that point, so they decided that they would save that as a last resort.

"Besides," Falco had said, shrugging his shoulders nonchalantly, "Slippy can always make me another Fire Cloak and Reflector, and the Cornerian Army can always supply me with another Blaster. I guess it's no big deal, but I'm still going to beat up whoever has my stuff."

Marth didn't know how serious he was, so everyone was prepared to restrain Falco if it turned out he was trying to beat on an unsuspecting Jigglypuff. They checked in the kitchen, the library, the lobby, the hallways, even the Teleporter. They still came up with nothing. The clock reached 9:45, and everyone became much more short-tempered.

"At this rate," Marth groaned, "the only places we have left to check now are everyone's rooms, the stadium, the arenas, and the Target Tests, and I don't think it'll be in any of the latter three."

They decide to hold off on that area of the investigation until the round was over. With only ten minutes left, they decided to get ready doing warm-ups and drinking water. Marth took the time to think to himself.

_Will we ever find them?_ he wondered as he slumped on his bed. _We've checked just about everywhere. Whoever hid them hid them well. What if whoever stole them knows this place better than we do? Do we have a chance? And I guess Falco's right. Maybe it's really no big deal. He can always get his stuff remade back in his own world. But whoever took them might plan on using them for something bigger and worse than we think...what a depressing thought...._

Ten minutes came and went quicker than it should. Marth groaned and got up off his bed when he decided he should forget about the weapons for then and go watch the first battle of the second round. He went to the Teleporter and warped to Yoshi's Island, where the battle would be held.

The battle was pretty fierce. Ganondorf didn't give Yoshi a chance to rest. Even with the dinosaur in his own homeland, Ganondorf was mercilessly pummeling Yoshi. Yoshi rolled into Ganondorf with his Egg Roll move and bashed into him several times; Ganondorf's response was a kick that shattered the egg shell and knocked Yoshi through two sets of blocks and on top of the large, green pipe on the left side of the stage. Enraged, Yoshi attempted to ground pound on Ganondorf, who sidestepped and let Yoshi crash through the gap of blocks that led to certain defeat.

"Pathetic, really," Ganondorf muttered, leering down the gap.

Ganondorf moved onto round three, and everyone left Yoshi's Island for a half-hour break. Nobody seized the opportunity to look around, because they could very well miss the opening of the next battle if they were too late, and they didn't want to really concentrate on it until the whole round was over. Roy munched on a large, salty pretzel, nervous about the fight two battles away.

When half an hour passed, everybody went to the Teleporter to watch the next match. The two Ice Climbers were squaring off against Donkey Kong on Onett. (Marth still wondered how they could stand the intense heat in their thick suits.) It was absolute mayhem. Donkey Kong started the match off by using his long and strong arms to smash Popo in the face, while Nana behind him retaliated by bashing his fingers with her hammer. When Donkey Kong leaped at them, they hit him repeatedly with hammer blows until he crashed back into the ground. When he got back up, he kicked them both away, then threw Nana into the air and clapped his hands above his head when she came tumbling down. Popo froze him in a block of ice with his blizzard and helped Nana recover while a car narrowly swerved around the frozen Donkey Kong. The ape burst out, head butted them both into the ground, smacked them both several times, then finished them off with a spectacular punch when they pulled themselves out. They hit the arena's blast lines, and Donkey Kong was declared the winner.

"I'm gonna go get another pretzel," Roy murmured after the match.

"Ease up on the pretzels," Marth told him. "You'll do fine. And if you lose, then at least it's over with. And you get to battle the others who lost. It isn't nearly as bad as it sounds."

"I'm still nervous."

He had a good reason to be nervous. His next opponent was Mewtwo, who was well-known for being a ruthless and powerful fighter. Despite being wise, he was also savage in and out of battle and would not hesitate to harm someone if he needed to. He also preferred his privacy and space, and when it was invaded, intruders were met with an intimidating glare.

"Roy," a deep voice said.

Roy flinched as Mewtwo addressed him. As always, the legendary Pokemon teleported to the lobby out of nowhere. He floated an inch or so off the ground, gaze fixed on Roy. As a Pokemon, he technically could not speak human language, but using his psychic skills, he could project his thoughts out into the open air. His voice was deep and wise but was also slow, cold, and devoid of humor.

"Yeah?" Roy asked nervously.

"I would like to wish you luck on our next battle," Mewtwo said without even using his voice box. "I hope you have trained well, for I expect a challenge. If you win this match, congratulations. But if you do not, train harder."

Mewtwo teleported away. "In other words," Roy translated, "if you lose, you're a dork. I'm gonna go do some warm-ups."

--

Roy faced Mewtwo on the Brinstar Depths arena. Most fighters, including Roy himself, were very nervous on this stage. Not only was it tricky and dangerous, but there was a sea of lava flowing beneath them. The blast lines came before the lava, however, to prevent fighters from further injury. But worst of all was the giant monster looming in the background, Kraid. It was about four times the size of the stage itself. It turned the stage at various angles by swiping at the fighters. Although Master Hand had assured them that there were two Kraids and this was the fake and weaker one, accidents happened frequently where a fighter would be nearly rent in two by one of Kraid's claws. The Smart Shields were the only things saving them from a very painful death.

Mewtwo, however, did not look the least bit frightened. In fact, Roy guessed that, if he wanted to, he could destroy Kraid himself in a matter of a few easy seconds. Roy was starting to wish he would.

"Welcome to the third battle of the second round of the Ultimate Tournament!" Master Hand boomed. "In this battle, Roy will be facing Mewtwo in the dangerous Brinstar Depths. Whoever wins moves onto the third round of the tournament. 3...2...1...go!!"

"Show me what you have learned," Mewtwo said challengingly.

Roy ran forward and sliced his sword down at Mewtwo. His sword was met with thin air. Mewtwo wasn't there anymore. Instinctively, he looked behind him. Sure enough, there Mewtwo was, still not attacking.

"A very foolish strategy," Mewtwo commented.

Roy, angry, swung his sword several times at Mewtwo, he dodged each one without even moving his feet. After awhile, Mewtwo blocked the sword with his mind and hit Roy with a shadowy punch in the stomach that sent him flying backwards.

Kraid had risen up out of the depths now and was looming over the stage menacingly. Roy recovered his sword and stumbled to his feet. He noticed Kraid swinging his hand forward out of the corner of his eye and ducked just as Kraid's claws slashed at him. He was saved by the gap in between the monster's two fingers. The small, floating island turned over right. Roy hopped forward to avoid falling, but had the wind knocked out of him when he jumped into Mewtwo's tail. He grabbed onto the edge of the arena, then kicked off and landed on a small, floating rock. When he turned around, Mewtwo was right behind him again. Roy stabbed at him, but he merely floated sideways around it.

"I ask for a challenge," Mewtwo said, "and this is what you give me?"

He picked Roy up without touching him and hurled him behind him. Roy bashed into the side of the floating island and landed back on the small rock they were on. Mewtwo's tail held him to the ground, even though not much effort was used. Roy swiped his foot with his sword, jumped back up, then swung his sword and positioned himself to counter in case Mewtwo retaliated. Sure enough, Mewtwo dodged around the swipe and attacked with his tail, which hit Roy's sword. Roy smashed the sword back at him and knocked him on top of the floating island.

"Very good," Mewtwo said. "You have learned."

Roy jumped up after Mewtwo, who was charging a Shadow Ball, then leaped over him but was met by Mewtwo's long tail yet again. He fell back onto the ground, then got blasted by the fully-charged Shadow Ball. He fell downwards just as Kraid hit the arena again. Roy grabbed onto a piece of the wall and clung on tightly as the arena flipped completely upside-down from its starting position. He sheathed his sword to grip with two hands. His muscles trembled--he didn't know how much longer he could hold on. He was directly on the underside of the stage, holding onto just a small, metal protrusion.

He gasped as Mewtwo's floating form arrived right in front of him. Mewtwo's face was just inches away from his. If Roy used one hand to grab his sword and strike, he would surely plummet and lose the match. What now?

Mewtwo merely watched with amusement until Kraid flipped the stage back on its right. Mewtwo followed the stage's tilt until he was looking at Roy upside-down. Roy hopped off and got back on top of the stage, unsheathing his sword. He spun around in a circle, sword outstretched, and hit nothing. Mewtwo teleported in front of him. Roy, flying into a frenzy swung his sword fourteen times and missed with all of them as Mewtwo saw them coming in advance and moved almost lazily to avoid them. Roy realized that he had backed Mewtwo off of the stage, and he was now hovering in the air.

He saw a couple of balls of light come from Mewtwo's eyes and connect directly with Roy's. Suddenly, the room became darker, and his sense of equilibrium was so off, the floor might have well been the ceiling. He didn't know where Mewtwo was or where the pain was coming from, but when he finally recovered his vision, he was falling down towards the bottom blast line. He grabbed onto the edge of another floating rock and pulled himself up. He sank to his knees, panting. He didn't even bother to look as he heard Mewtwo land gently behind him.

"I guess...I lose," Roy said between pants.

"As I said before," Mewtwo said, "train harder."

Roy was grabbed by psychic energy, then hurled over Mewtwo's shoulder and fell down past the bottom blast line.

"And the winner is..." Master Hand boomed, "...Mewtwo! Congratulations! You will move onto round three!"

--

Marth immediately went to greet Roy the moment he saw him come out of the Teleporter. He arrived five minutes after everybody else did. Marth suspected he was having a moment alone on the Brinstar Depths.

"You did well, Roy," Marth congratulated.

Roy didn't look at him. "I think I can safely say that you are lying," he muttered. "I got maybe one or two hits, and he was _toying_ with me the whole match. It isn't just that I lost; I lost horribly."

"Most people are the same way with him," Marth replied. "Most people can't beat him."

"Just leave me alone for the time being," Roy said, walking past him.

Marth decided to let Roy be. He would recover in time, but he could tell Roy felt terrible. Not just from the aches and pains, but from how he never even put up a real fight. He decided to find Link and talk to him about something. He found the Hyrulian hero in his room, getting ready for the fight early.

"Did you talk to Roy?" Link asked.

Marth nodded. "He's pretty upset. I think we should make it up to him somehow."

Link scowled. "I am _not_ eating salsa again."

"I was thinking more along the lines of another Swordsmans' Night Out. Where Roy gets to pick where to go and everything."

Link's expression brightened up a bit. "Sounds good. When are we going to do it?"

"Tonight, if it's possible."

Link nodded. "Okay, when the round is all over, we'll all head on over to wherever Roy wants to go. How about we go to whatever restaurant Roy picks for dinner?"

Marth agreed to it. "Now get ready. Good luck on your fight."

"Thanks."

Marth left the room, feeling better. Perhaps Roy wouldn't feel so bad after all.


	8. Chapter 8: Marth: Round Two

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I just got a Wii recently! (No, not everybody has a Wii these days.) And with that, I got Super Smash Bros. Brawl. So now if I wanted to write a Brawl sequel to this story (among other stories), I could. The game rocks, seriously. My two favorite newcomers are Ike and Pit--talk about wrecking balls. (Which also means that if I do make a sequel to this, one of those two characters will likely become the protagonists.) Sorry for talk about something mostly-unrelated to the subject. Let's get back to the story.

--

Marth was very nervous. There were a lot of things on his mind; first of all, another Swordsman was having his match in about ten minutes, and Marth didn't want Link to join Roy in the just-lost group. Secondly, _his_ battle was right afterwards. And then there was the matter of the Swordsmans' Night Out. Marth was determined to make sure Roy felt better before the night was over.

The ten minutes came and went. Marth stretched and went down to the Teleporter. Link was fighting Mario on the Rainbow Cruise stage. Although the scenery was beautiful and breathtaking, most of the fighters never paused to look at it; they were concentrated on the person trying to beat them up. The people in the stands, however, were left to admire it. The match would start on an elaborate flying ship, which would then crash into an obstacle course. Master Hand designed it so that the blast lines would move continuously during the obstacle course until they made their way back to the start.

Marth sat down next to Roy and sighed. "It's okay, Roy," he said. "We're going to make it up to you tonight."

"Chugging salsa?"

"No. We were thinking of a Swordsmans' Night Out where you get to pick where we go to eat."

"No fair!" Young Link's voice called out from behind them. "I lost, and all I got was to watch me, in reality, eating salsa!"

"Then we'll let you order something nice wherever we go," Marth said.

The match started. Right off the bat, Link threw his boomerang at Mario, who dodged it but got whacked in the back of the head when it came back. Link seized the opportunity to dive at him and smash him with his sword. Mario rolled back to his feet and dodged a bomb thrown at him, then leaped and spun Link around with his cape. Link was kicked in the back and landed on the back part of the ship. Mario jumped up and hit him repeatedly with his Mario Tornado technique. Link swiped him several times, then rolled to his feet when he hit the ground. Mario came dashing back, and Link swiped his sword and kicked at the same time. Mario ducked under the blade but got hit in the face with Link's boot.

It was about this time that the ship crashed into the obstacle course and began "sinking." Link turned and dashed onto the obstacle course, then hurled as many bombs as he could scrounge up at Mario. Mario almost fell off the back of the ship but finally made it on. He was met by Link's sword and was knocked past the blast lines.

"Well, that wasn't too hard, fortunately," Marth sighed.

--

The next match was Marth vs. Bowser. Everyone knew Bowser was no cakewalk (especially Mario, who had recounted many a story about their fights). But fortunately for Marth, that worked to his advantage. Because of his great strength, fiery breath, and strange pride as a villain, Bowser was overconfident. Marth still wondered how he could let his guard down so often when Mario had beaten him time and time again. Even so, Marth would be prepared.

"Hey, blue-haired guy!!"

_And what do you know_, Marth thought, _here he is now._

"You'd better watch it during our match!" Bowser boomed. "I've been training and working out like crazy. That wimp Luigi couldn't even beat me. Trust me when I say you don't have a chance."

"Well, don't get overconfident," Marth advised. _As usual_. "That's one wide road to failure."

"Failure? What's failure?" Bowser sneered. "Something you do?"

_Oh, please,_ Marth thought. _His jokes aren't even funny._ "You forget you've said the same thing about fifty times, and Mario beat you every time. If you beat me using your skill and strength, then good. ...Well, maybe not, because you're a bad guy." Bowser smirked at that. "But don't get cocky, because when people do that, they often fail."

Bowser shook his head and walked out. "You'd still better watch it!"

Marth couldn't help thinking one thing: _What a jerk._ No wonder he lost so much. That was a good thing, though. Marth decided to get something to drink as he waited for thirty minutes to pass.

--

Marth would be fighting Bowser on the old Kongo Jungle stage that had been featured in the First Generation. He landed lightly from his teleporting pad and unsheathed his sword. Bowser was already there, proud smirk on his face. Marth scowled.

Master Hand began the announcements while Bowser punching his knuckles together menacingly and made other threatening gestures. Marth fought the urge to roll his eyes and paid attention to Master Hand. When the announcements were done, Master Hand began counting down.

"3...2...1...go!"

Marth approached Bowser cautiously, sword held out in front of him. Bowser breathed his fiery breath, and Mario leaped over it and swiped him in between his horns. Bowser jumped backwards to try and hit Marth with his huge shell, but Marth rolled around it and swiped Bowser in the belly. Angry, Bowser swiped at the nimble hero with his claws repeatedly. Marth dodged under the first two, blocked the third with his sword, but missed the fourth and got swiped backwards.

"Well?" Bowser mocked. "That's a little something I like to call--"

He didn't get a chance to finish. His eyes widened as Marth leaped back and hit Bowser first in the hit, then stabbed him in the belly. He used his momentum to spin around and throw all his weight into a sword smash that sent Bowser flying off the stage. When Bowser tried to leap back on, he jumped over him and slammed him downwards by hitting him with the point of his sword. Bowser flew straight down and would have been defeated instantly if he had not fallen into the floating barrel beneath the stage. Marth groaned and back away from it cautiously. No doubt Bowser would be aiming for him when he blasted back out. The barrel rolled several times. Marth hoped Bowser would fall out, but he had no such luck. On the third roll, a giant reptile came bursting out. Before Marth could react, he was bashed by a heavy enemy and knocked into a tree. Marth felt the wind whoosh out of him.

"Now you've made me mad," Bowser growled.

Marth didn't respond. He was crouching on the ground, trying to recover from the attack. The Smart Shields barely blocked it. He wouldn't be surprised if he had broken a bone or two by the time the match was over.

Bowser blasted Marth with his fiery breath, then threw him behind him. Marth's head went off the edge of the floating stage and hung in the air. He lifted himself up carefully and saw Bowser standing over him. Marth swung his sword at him, but Bowser sidestepped it and put one foot on Marth's sword arm, the other on his chest. The air went out of Marth's lungs again.

"I guess maybe there's something wrong with overconfidence," Bowser said, "but in this case, it helps to be _angry_." He put more weight on his right foot. Marth groaned in pain. "Normally I'd gloat over your loss a bit and cause you more pain, but I realize now that wouldn't be the smartest move. No, the _smart_ thing to do would be to get rid of you now."

_He's got me pinned! What do I do!?!_ Marth thought frantically. Kicking probably wouldn't work; Bowser's hide was too thick for that. The King of the Koopas was now pushing his foot up, pushing Marth more and more over the edge of the stage. With his free hand, he grabbed his sword from his trapped hand and swiped Bowser as many times as he could. At first Bowser tried to endure the pain, but then it became overwhelming and he had to let go. Marth jumped up and stabbed Bowser in the belly, then jumped to the side instinctively. Bowser dived past, and Marth turned his body to bring a kick into Bowser's shell, helping push him over the edge. Before Bowser could climb back on, Marth hit him with the point of his sword again, and this time, there was no floating barrel to save him. Bowser crashed down below the blast line and lost.

Marth, however, did not feel as happy as he normally should have after defeating Bowser. He sheathed his sword and clutched his right arm. He was glad that he was moving onto the next round along with Link, but he was still much more sore than he normally was after a fight. He would go to the Recovery Room after the match was done.

--

"Nice, Marth!" Link congratulated.

"Thanks."

"What's wrong, Marth?" Zelda asked, noticing his arm.

"My arm hurts. You saw what Bowser did to it."

"Is it broken?" she asked.

"I don't know. Hopefully not, considering I have another match soon."

"You should go to the Recovery Room," she urged.

"I was going there anyway."

Marth followed Zelda as she led the way to the bright white room. He felt childish, hopping up onto an examination table.

"Why do hospital rooms have to be so boring?" Marth complained. "It's like snow season twenty-four-seven here: White and cold."

Zelda ignored him and felt around his right arm lightly. "Where does it hurt?"

"Ow! Right there, top of my wrist! Where your fingers are!"

"Can you move it okay?"

Marth turned his wrist and flexed it. "Yeah, but it hurts."

Zelda turned on a high-tech machine. Marth had no idea how it worked since technology was about nonexistent in his dimension. As a matter of fact, it was almost nonexistent in her dimension, too. But being one of the doctors, she was taught how to use it. Apparently, this sort of technology was rare even in Mario's dimension and only showed up in dimensions like Fox's and Samus's. From what Marth understood, it somehow detected breaks in bones. Zelda let a beam of light scan Marth up and down. Marth closed his eyes as it shined over his face. A green light flashed on the machine, and "No breaks detected" appeared on the screen.

"Looks like it isn't broken, but got pretty close," Zelda said. "Just be careful using that arm for awhile."

Marth thanked her and hastily walked out of the Recovery Room. He hated being in that room. It made him feel so childish and helpless. Tired, he went up to his bedroom, closed the door, and took a nap.


	9. Chapter 9: Swordsmans' Night Out

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Well, I think I've got to agree with luigi rocsz: This story isn't getting many reviews. (I thank luigi rocsz for being a faithful reviewer, however.) Remember, the less reviews I get, the less motivated I will be to update this story. And since I'm currently juggling multiple stories, if I get too bored of one story, I may even delete it. Since I like this story, I probably won't delete it, but if you can, please take a second and make me feel warm and fuzzy or something.

--

"It's time to get up, Marth."

_Go away, I'm sleeping,_ Marth thought grumpily.

"Marth! Come on!"

Marth turned away from the voice.

"I'll set Mr. Game and Watch on you if you don't get up in five seconds."

_Do it, then. What do I care?_

"The next match is about to start, Marth!"

Marth felt the jolt of sudden panic you yourself are probably familiar with; while you are resting in bed, you suddenly forget who and where you are and what you've been doing recently, and the moment somebody tells you, everything rushes back and you realize you are late for something important. Marth opened his eyes immediately and sat upright instantly.

"Huh? What?"

Marth turned to see Young Link standing by the bed looking very impatient. He was scowling up at Marth.

"The next match will start in about two minutes! Are you coming or not?"

Marth nodded and hopped out of bed so fast that his feet got stuck in the comforter and he landed on his chest on the floor with his feet stuck in a big blanket. He winced as he landed on his injured part. He quickly untangled his feet, crawled out, got back up, and dashed out the door. Young Link was right behind him. When they got downstairs, Marth slid across the floor, changed directions, and headed for the Teleporter. He almost left Young Link behind as he hit the necessary buttons and the doors almost closed on the small boy. Young Link looked like he really wanted to say something about it, but decided not to say anything anyway.

"Sorry," Marth panted.

The Teleporter rumbled as they warped away in separate teleporting pads, which were small platforms that used the energy harnessed by the Teleporter to switch dimensions or warp to a certain spot. Marth arrived behind the other fighters in the floating stands outside the blast lines. Fox was fighting Kirby in the Jungle Japes level. The first people to turn and look at him were Link, Roy, and Zelda.

"Just in time," Link said. "It's going to start in about four seconds."

"After you didn't appear," Young Link said, sitting down next to Zelda, "they sent me after you. Can you at least set your alarm on the clock or something?"

"I don't know how," Marth said, shrugging. "Pieces of technology still fascinate me."

Before anybody could say anything else, Master Hand started announcing the start of the match. Marth set down next to Link and yawned. It seemed like there was never enough sleep in a nap. His arm and chest still hurt from when Bowser stepped on them.

"3...2...1...go!!"

Fox jumped off his part of the house on stilts and landed on the larger middle part. Kirby hopped down and joined him. Fox released several shots from his Blaster, then flipped over Kirby and did a kick. His foot met nothing. His leg was a good two feet or so over Kirby. Fox grimaced as he realized he had forgotten about Kirby's miniscule size. Kirby inhaled Fox, then copied his form and spat him back out. Fox growled when he saw the pair of furry ears on top of Kirby's head. When most fighters were inhaled by him, they felt like their privacy had been invaded.

"Take those ears off," Fox growled.

Kirby's response was to pull out a Blaster lookalike and shoot Fox with it. He got hit with the first one, reflected the second one, and jumped on top of Kirby. His foot landed on the ground. Kirby had done a simple sidestep and was now beside his foot. Before Fox could react, Kirby tripped him, then grabbed him with surprising strength for his tiny form, flew up into the air, and slammed him back down into the ground. When Kirby floated after him, Fox kicked Kirby, then pulled out his Blaster and fired several more shots in quick succession. He almost landed in the river, but caught onto the edge of the house and pulled himself back on.

Kirby created a wave of energy using his Final Cutter, which Fox reflected back at him. He ran at him in an attempt to kick him, but Kirby sidestepped it and kicked him off the edge of the house. Before Fox could pull himself back on, Kirby gave him several kicks to the stomach, then grabbed him and threw him down into the river. Fox's eyes widened as he realized he couldn't get out of the water. No matter how hard he struggled, he could not swim back to safety. The river rushed him past the boundaries, and he lost the match.

"And that is why Kirby is so dangerous," Samus said, sighing. Marth remembered that she had lost to him during the first round. Despite the small creature's tiny size and simplistic look, he was definitely a skilled fighter.

--

"Dinnertime, Roy."

Link, Marth, and Young Link walked into Roy's room. Roy was working on a book of brainteasers, staring intently at its pages. He glanced up as Link said as name. "Okay."

"That means it's another Swordsmans' Night Out."

Roy closed the book suddenly. "Oh, yeah. I forgot about that. Although it really isn't necessary to do this for me. I mean, nobody else is doing it--"

"Then let's do it for Young Link," Link suggested. Roy couldn't argue with it, so he set the book down and followed them.

"Where do you want to eat?" Marth asked Roy as they walked to the Teleporter. Along with going to stages to fight and going to stage to _watch_ people fight, they could also teleport without blast lines so they could freely explore each dimension. Going to another dimension without telling anyone and not coming back for days was forbidden, and could sometimes get fighters kicked out of Smash School. Nobody had ever gotten lost or been kicked out, fortunately. In order to teleport back, all people teleporting, including teleporting to matches, were given wristwatch-like devices that could send them back to the Teleporter.

"That one place in the Mushroom Kingdom," Roy answered. "I keep forgetting what it's called. Makes the spaghetti I like."

Spaghetti was a new dish that Roy had discovered he liked, much like Coffee. Marth had also tried it and liked it. "Okay, let's go there. We're going to the Mushroom Kingdom, guys."

They all stepped into the Teleporter and pressed the button for the Mushroom Kingdom. They all teleported separately to a spot in the dimension, right next to a place called Toad Town. (If they had warped right in the middle of it, it would have scared some people.) They were always surprised by the mushroom-like citizens, and Young Link still couldn't understand why it was called Toad Town if no frogs lived there. Roy had given up trying to explain what a toadstool was.

They walked along a path and finally arrived in the middle of Toad Town. They saw many Toads, the citizens, walking around. They tried not to stare at one another, because both were rare sights to each other. The restaurant Roy liked was in the southern part of the town, so they headed south. They found the restaurant Roy liked and walked inside.

The restaurant was not overly fancy. It was a sit-down kind of place, but not "fast food," as Marth believed it was called. They all sat down in a semicircle booth and relaxed.

"You _did_ convert the Smash Coins into the currency used here, right?" Marth asked Link. He nodded.

The Toad waitress walked up to their table. Although she was smiling, Marth could tell she was thinking, _Oh, great. These weirdos again._ "Hello! How are you guys today?"

"Pretty good," Marth answered. It was fortunate that, for a strange reason, nobody minded four people with all kinds of deadly weapons walking into the restaurant. He was also surprised when Mario had said it wasn't an uncommon thing for someone with an axe or sword to just walk around town. Still, it didn't seem to change the waitress's mind about them being psychotic weirdos.

"Are you all ready to order?" she asked.

Marth looked around the table. Roy nodded; Link nodded; Young Link was reading the menu impatiently.

"Need help?" Marth asked.

"I can't find where the drinks are!" Young Link muttered.

Link leaned over. "Did you check under 'beverages'?"

"How was I supposed to know what 'beverages' meant?" Young Link complained. "They can't just put 'drinks'?"

Marth ignored him. "Do you have any grape soda?"

The waitress nodded. She turned to Roy. "Have any coffee?"

"Yep."

"Then I'll have some of that."

She wrote it down and moved onto Link. "Just water for me."

Young Link's expression brightened up. "Can I have hot chocolate?"

Hot chocolate? What was that? Wasn't that food, not a drink? And wouldn't hot chocolate melt? Would Young Link be drinking a gooey mess? He decided not to think about it and let the waitress write it down. She told them she'd be back shortly and that their drinks were on the way.

"By the way," Marth asked as the waitress left, "any word on Falco's missing things?" They all shook their heads. "Well, we now know for a fact that somebody stole them. He didn't just drop them, and nobody took them without permission and didn't put them back. Someone deliberately took his items, and they hid them well. Why would they take his stuff, though?"

They all thought for a bit. "Well," Link finally said, "to be honest, it sounds to me like some sort of evil plot. I don't think somebody stole them to get revenge or anything. I think somebody stole them with a plan in mind, like they're going to use these for something."

Marth had never thought of that. He had always assumed that it was personal revenge, or a prank, or maybe just somebody trying to get away with something naughty. He shuddered at the thought of something big, something that could affect them all. Something they couldn't sit back and watch as it unfolded.

"If that's true," Marth said slowly, "this places finding his items on a much higher scale. Let's hope it isn't, though."

Link nodded. "I hope not. But anyway, perhaps we should save that for a later time. This is supposed to be a happy time."

Marth nodded. As important as it was, he didn't want to ruin the whole thing by talking about depressing matters. He was glad when the waitress came back with their drinks.

"So, what's hot chocolate?" Marth asked as Young Link's drink was set down.

"It's kind of like Roy's coffee," Young Link said, "but it's chocolate, and it doesn't make you hyper."

Roy took a sip of his coffee and frowned. "This doesn't really taste like the coffee back at Smash School."

"That's because coffee is made different wherever you go," Link answered. "But it's still good, right?"

Roy grinned. "He can it not be good?"

Marth drank his grape soda. It was slightly different as well, but still had the same general taste. "Do they have soda in Hyrule, Link?"

"Nope. Totally new stuff. It's really good, too. I'm going to have to take this stuff back home."

That made Marth think of something else. "Hey...do any of you think you'll stick around for the Third Generation?"

Marth looked around him and realized that everyone heard them and thought they were nuts. He couldn't blame them; the Third Generation? No grape soda? Hyrule? What were these people talking about? He smiled and turned his attention back to the group.

"I _definitely_ am," Link said. "Remember, I was here in the First Generation. It just keeps getting better and better each gen."

"Maybe," Roy said. "And if I don't, I'm taking some coffee beans with me and starting my own coffee farm."

Young Link shrugged. "Probably not. I still have a whole forest and everything to go back to."

Marth had always wondered how Young Link and Link could exist at the same time. Once he had asked Master Hand about it, and his only response was, "Never you mind, Marth." He had decided to let the matter be, but was still intensely curious.

"I think I'm staying," Marth said. "I think it'll be interesting, seeing the new fighters and meeting everybody and learning about their pasts. When do you think the next generation will come?"

Link sighed. "Probably not for a long time. There was a pretty long gap in between the First and Second Generations, and this generation just started. But it will come, and I'm sticking around for it."

The waitress came back, and they all ordered their food. Roy, naturally, got his spaghetti. Marth ordered a hamburger, which was another new type of food that he found was addicting. Link ordered a cheeseburger, and Young Link got some chicken tenders. The sheer list of food to order was immense. No wonder Roy liked the restaurant so much.

The night lasted a long time. There was a watch built into the Home Bracelet (as it was called) which told the time, and Marth was surprised to learn they had spent an hour and a half at the restaurant. When it seemed like everyone was full, they were mysteriously able to cram in ice cream on top of all that they had. When they were done, they got up and left the restaurant, then warped back to the academy using their Home Bracelets.


	10. Chapter 10: Where's Roy?

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I know what you must have been thinking these previous chapters. Not much excitement. Some weapons go missing. Oooh, suspenseful. Well, guess what? This chapter is the official start of where things get interesting. You'll see why as you read on.

--

All four of the heroes arrived back in the Teleporter. Being in the Mushroom Kingdom was both exciting an awkward. They all knew many eyes were trained on the four creepy guys with swords walking around town. But still, Marth knew it made an impression on Roy and that he was a lot happier. Now if only it could stay that way.

"Did you have a good time, Roy?" Marth asked as he stepped out into the lobby.

He nodded. "I might lose more often for something like that. It was pretty good. What about you, Young Link? Was that hot chocolate any good?"

"Best thing I've ever tasted. Next time, I'm asking for whipped cream. And some marshmallows. And maybe a little cherry to go with it."

"If it costs more, you're paying for it," Marth reminded him. Young Link's expression dulled somewhat. Marth sighed. "What time is it?"

"Last I checked," Link said, motioning towards the Teleporter, "8:30."

Marth mouthed the word "wow." "How does one person get so tired by sitting down and doing nothing but lifting food to his mouth?"

Link moaned in agreement. "I feel fat."

"That's because you are," said Young Link, remaining nonchalant.

Marth tried to ignore the two green blurs running around the lobby, the bigger one chasing after the smaller one. "I think I might go to bed early. You know, after battling, sitting in uncomfortable stands, eating a lot, and having somebody huge step on you, it really does make you sleepy."

"You can't kill me!" Young Link laughed. "If you do, you'll disappear!"

Link paused for a brief breath beside Marth. "I didn't know I was like this when I was younger," he panted.

"You'd be surprised, the weird things you do in the old days," Marth said. He stretched and yawned. "Good night, everybody. I'm going upstairs."

The Four Swordsmen walked upstairs, Link and Young Link poking each other all the way. Marth hoped they wouldn't stay up and create too much noise. His arm was starting to ache, and he felt lightheaded and sleepy. He walked into his room, closed the door, and laid down on the bed.

--

Roy's room: One in the morning.

It was pitch black out. Roy's room was so dark that if he held his hand out, he probably couldn't see it. He was still awake, in fact. No matter what he told himself, he couldn't shake Mewtwo's words from his head: _Train harder._ Roy had won many battles, and yet he barely even touched Mewtwo? Did this mean he wasn't even fit to be one of the Swordsmen? Was he just a young boy with a sharp object in his hand?

_Stop lying to yourself,_ Roy told himself in his head. _That's no way to overcome battles. You have to face what's happened. The smart thing to do would be to take his advice: Train harder._

The dark room haunted Roy slightly. His imagination, drowsy with sleep and twisted by nightmares, formed enemies and leering faces. He tried to ignore them, but he felt helpless as the same phrases repeated themselves over and over again in his head. He shut his eyes, but now the faces were inside his eyelids.

_That's it._

Roy fumbled for the light, turned it on, and got out of bed. The light stung his eyes, and he rubbed them to make them get used to it. It was no good lying in bed and trying to sleep; sleep was beyond him, and he didn't want the discouraging lies and frightening faces to repeat themselves the entire night. He sat on the edge of his bed. The room felt cold at such an early hour.

After a few minutes of mulling over what had just happened to him, he stood up and walked out of the room, closing the door behind him. In case anybody had to get up during the night, Master Hand had created small lights that went along the lines where the floor and ceiling met the walls. Otherwise, it was pitch black, and someone would be sure to tumble down the staircase or bump into things. Roy walked down the stairs and went into the lobby. The lobby, too, had small lights hanging from walls to illuminate the large room.

He mentally scolded himself. _The chances of losing were big, anyway. Nobody else is whining about it, and some of them were defeated more easily than I was._ He imagined Marth's face if he found out that Roy was still sulking about it. The face was one of almost undetectable disappointment, but, as Roy knew, inside, he would feel very sad for Roy. Sad that he was such a pessimist about it. The discouraging words reappeared in Roy's mind, so he immediately stopped thinking about it and instinctively walked into the library.

The library was huge. There were two floors to it and multiple sections on each. Here, one could read fictional fantasy, science books, biographies of the fighters in Smash School, and even notes and info Master Hand himself had discovered. These mainly regarded the Linking Dimension, the power that surrounded it, and the like. The floor was made of black, polished stone, and multiple chandeliers hung from the ceiling. The chandeliers were gold colored, very elaborate, and always had a hundred tiny flames dancing around on it.

The ceiling itself was, perhaps, even more breathtaking. It was just a clear, open window. But through the windows, the stars were all visible. It was easy to get lost in the beautiful image, and Roy used it to distract himself. Whenever it was noon, the sun would shine directly down through the window and illuminate the entire library with light. It was a sight that could only be seen to really be believed.

But, of course, it was a little after midnight, so it held a different beauty. The full moon was also visible, and the moonlight created a square in the center of the library. He tore his gaze away from it and decided to read a book. He walked up to the second floor via a staircase and wandered through the shelves. He was about to pass by one when he noticed a figure in one of the rows. Surprised to see somebody else up, he took a step back and walked inside the row.

"Sorry. Did I startle you?" he asked.

No response came from the person. The person was at the back of the row, so it was completely dark and impossible to determine who it was. The figure was also hunched slightly, so all Roy saw was a black blob. Maybe it was Mr. Game and Watch. That would explain why the person didn't say anything. But Mr. Game and Watch was usually easily picked out by blips and beeps whenever he moved....

"I couldn't sleep, so I decided to come in here. Find anything interesting?"

Still no response. Roy started to become a little suspicious. Why wouldn't the person talk? Was he or she getting into something bad? Roy cocked his head slightly.

"Why aren't you saying anything?"

Of course, there was no answer there, either. He didn't expect one, but now he was starting to get impatient. Roy crossed his arms.

"You aren't doing something you're not supposed to, are you?" he asked. He leaned in a bit closer to see who it was. "Were you the one responsible for Falco's missing things? If so, you're in a heap of trouble." Roy's eyes widened a bit when he saw who it was. "Wait, are you--"

The figure leaped at him before he even had a chance to shout. The next thing he knew, he was unconscious.

--

Marth woke up very refreshed. His arm didn't hurt, and he felt numb but not exhausted. He got out of bed, got ready, and went downstairs. He walked into the kitchen to have breakfast and saw most of the people already downstairs. He grabbed a glass of water, two blueberry muffins, and an apple, then sat down at an empty table waiting for Roy.

He tried to suppress the irritated feelings rising up inside him. They had a long day yesterday, and Roy was probably just tired. He probably wasn't moping again, especially not after the very expensive meal that Marth and Link had paid for. Any second, Roy would show up and make Marth feel guilty about his thoughts.

But he didn't show up. Marth was working on a fourth muffin, waiting for him to appear. After he threw away the papery cup, he decided to go up and check on him. He downed the rest of his water, set it on the counter, and walked back upstairs. Roy's door was still closed. Perhaps he really was just sleeping in. Marth opened the door slightly and peeked in. Roy's bed had empty covers on it. He knocked on the door lightly and walked in. The room was empty. He wasn't sleeping in, and if he was still feeling bad, he was pouting somewhere else.

Marth went down two floors into the basement. Perhaps Roy was foregoing breakfast in favor of distracting his thoughts with a Target Test or Multi-Man Melee. He checked into the Target Test Data Room, which was a very small room with a computer in it that showed records for each person's test and who was in what test currently. According to the computer, nobody was in a Target Test. He went to the Multi-Man Melee Room next, where you could enter into a Melee and watch who was currently fighting. Roy wasn't in there, either. Becoming desperate, he went out to the Home Run Stadium. There was nobody there, either.

The Meeting Signal went off, so Marth didn't have much time to search. No doubt it was about the next round of the Ultimate Tournament. Marth went upstairs and headed for the Meeting Room. After awhile, all the other fighters gathered there--everybody except Roy.

Master Hand scanned the crowd. "Where's Roy?"

"I was looking for him," Marth said. "I've checked just about everywhere. I can't find him."

"Maybe he's outside," Link suggested. "If he really is still feeling bad, maybe we should let it be. He'll come back when he's ready."

Marth nodded. Roy was probably just outside doing something. Maybe he didn't even feel bad. Maybe he just wanted some fresh air. He would come back when he wanted to.

"Then we'll continue without him," Master Hand said. "The third round of the tournament will start in two days. Prepare yourself until then. The most skilled fighters will be in the third and final rounds. I have once again updated the tournament sheets so you can see who is fighting who."

Marth grabbed a sheet and couldn't help but notice that there was still a sheet left. He decided to take it and keep it for Roy when he came back. If he came back. Marth ignored that concept and studied the sheet:

Battle #1: Ganon/Donkey Kong

Battle #2: Mewtwo/Link

Battle #3: Marth/Kirby

Marth's battle was last. There were only three short battles. And to think that, not so long ago, they were struggling to get in twelve matches. Even if Marth lost, the fact that he made it to the semifinal round was nice to know.

"That is all," Master Hand finished. "You may go now."

Marth walked out of the room and decided not to worry about Roy. Maybe he would read a book, or watch a movie, or play a board game with some of the other characters. What would happen would happen.

--

It was eight o' clock at night. Roy still hadn't come back. Marth had even checked in his room and in the basement again. Nobody had seen him since yesterday. Worried, he walked outside and began looking for him. Although the Linking Dimension was extremely small, it was still large enough to get very lost in. There were forests and ponds and all sorts of things. Roy could have gone for a stroll anywhere. Hopefully, he hadn't gone far from the building.

"Roy!" Marth called. Nobody answered. "Roy!!" he shouted again. He walked around the entire building. Roy wasn't anywhere around there. His worry grew a bit more. Maybe Roy had gotten lost. Or perhaps he had an accident in the forest and was laying bleeding on the ground. The thoughts scared him. He walked faster in the direction of the walking trail that led to the nearby pond.

He arrived at the pond quicker than normal, although perhaps that was just because it felt quicker to him. The pond was wide and had lily pads and flowers floating on the surface. Reeds and tall flowers grew on the sides. It was definitely a romantic spot, but romance was the last thing on Marth's mind.

"Roy!!!" Marth called again. He hoped to see a startled redhead walk out from nowhere, saying, "I'm right here!" No such thing happened. A knot formed in Marth's stomach. Something must have happened to Roy. He rushed back to the academy and went to find Link. He found him in his room drawing a picture of what must have been a monster from his dimension.

"I still can't find Roy," Marth panted. "I've checked outside. I checked the pond, around the academy, just about everywhere. I'm starting to think something's happened to him. Can you help me look for him?"

Link set down his pencil and looked up at Marth. "How do you know something's happened to him?" he asked. "Are you sure he's not just taking a really long walk?"

"Yeah, a twelve-hour walk," Marth said sarcastically. "I think he'd have gotten over it by now. He'd have come when I called his name. Something happened to him."

Link nodded. "I'll try and get some other people to look as well. Wait down in the lobby."

It only took a few minutes for Link, Samus, and Mario to come down the stairs, but to Marth, it felt like an hour. He was eager to get out the door and start looking. The moment they joined him, he walked quickly out the doors. They headed for the forest trail, wandering into the woods where Roy might have gotten lost.

They were calling his name and looking for him for around an hour. It was pitch black in the woods. Eventually, Mario decided that they should go back to the academy. Maybe he would be there tomorrow. Or maybe they'd have to look again.

But back at the academy, when everybody else had gone upstairs, Marth stayed in the lobby and thought about something that had occurred to him while in the woods. Mysterious things were happening. Strange noises. Missing items that were clearly stolen. And now, a missing person. A panicked thought ran through Marth's mind:

Had Roy found out too much?


	11. Chapter 11: The Trackers

Days passed. Roy did not come back.

Which, of course, naturally meant that, without a shadow of a doubt, something bad had happened to Roy. Nobody moped for two days straight. Not even if they just lost at a tournament.

Marth definitely suspected foul play. And more than that, probably a betrayal from one of the fighters right inside the school. After all, the only people inside the Linking Dimension were the fighters, Master Hand, and Crazy Hand (who Master Hand seemed to want to keep away at all costs for some reason).

He had given up looking for him after a search everywhere in the Linking Dimension turned up nothing. Roy had not gotten himself killed somehow--Marth shuddered at the thought--and there was a very unlikely chance that he had gotten lost. All fighters were given specific instructions on how to return to the academy if they got lost. There were even signs planted here and there and everywhere across the dimension. Nobody could stay lost for two days.

And it all made sense, of course: There was a crime committed before Roy's disappearance which showed the presence of some twisted mind. Roy had gotten captured. Whether he found out too much or if there was another reason behind it, he didn't know. But Roy was not coming back on his own.

Marth had dropped the whole missing weapons thing. He was no longer looking for weapons or even a missing person; he was looking for a kidnapper and a thief. The person behind the mess, not the mess itself. You can clean up a messy room, but if somebody keeps making it messy at the same speed you're cleaning it, you'll get nowhere. The person had to be stopped first. And from that person Marth could gain the information he needed on the "mess."

There were twenty-four fighters inside the academy. That was a lot of possibly guilty people. Marth knew, of course, that he hadn't done anything, so that lowered it to twenty-three. Still a high number.

Marth sat in a chair in the kitchen. It was evening at the end of the second day of Roy's disappearance. He was the only one in the kitchen, which helped because he could think better. He had already tried the cooks' room again, looking for clues he might have missed, like shoeprints or anything that could be traced to another person. He came up with nothing. He supposed it didn't help that Peach was constantly cleaning every room in the academy before the academy's automatic cleaning system did the job for her. In fact, Master Hand had neglected the system in favor of Peach.

_How many crime scenes are there?_ Marth wondered. _One: The kitchen. I've already checked there. Two: Roy's room. Was he taken in the night, or did he wander off somewhere? Three: Falco's room._ Marth grimaced. _I'll have to get around Falco himself first. I'd better start at scene two._

Marth stood up and walked out of the kitchen. His goal was Roy's room. He had to find anything; a sign of a struggle, a shoeprint, a piece of the kidnapper's clothing...anything. He hurried his pace up the stairs and turned into Roy's room.

The room had been left virtually untouched since Roy's disappearance. The bedsheets were still crumpled up on the bed. Marth analyzed them carefully. If Roy had been struggling when he was taken, the bedsheets would be much more of a mess. Unless, of course, the kidnapper was smart and made the bedsheets look natural. From the looks of it, he wasn't carefully lifted from the bed, either, because the bedsheets would probably be _less_ of a mess. Somewhere in the middle. Roy got out of bed himself.

Which opened up another possibility: Roy may have gone somewhere else when he was taken. Late at night, he wouldn't be up for any of the stadium games. The best bets were in the kitchen for a snack, in the library to calm down, in the lobby to relax, and outside for some fresh air. More places on Marth's to-do list. At least he was making progress.

He still hadn't checked Falco's room. He hoped Falco was in a good mood today. It would make things easier. He checked around Roy's room for any stains, pieces of clothing, signs of a struggle...he found nothing. Feeling as though he was being too nosy, he pushed the feeling aside and checked his shelves and drawers to see if anything else was stolen. He didn't know what Roy had, so he figured it was pretty useless.

He did, however, find that the Sword of Seals was gone. Was it just a souvenir from the crime? Or had there been another purpose for it? He decided to think about it later and check Falco's room.

"Hey, Marth. Find anything?"

So Falco wasn't in the mood to argue. That made things easier. He was lounging on his bed, staring at the ceiling.

"About your weapons, no. But I did come in here to search for more clues. Our perpetrator was here, you know."

Falco sighed and stared at the ceiling again. "Go ahead. I already checked, though. I don't think it takes much work to pick up an item and carry it somewhere else. You don't even need to touch anything besides the items themselves."

"What about footprints?"

"Checked."

"Stains?"

"Besides that mysterious green thing growing in the corner of my room, checked."

"Anything else stolen?"

"Checked that, too. Just my weapons."

The perpetrator was clever. And also out with a mission in mind. Whoever was committing the crimes was not doing them for the thrill of being naughty. There was a plan in mind, Marth was sure of it. The weapons meant something. Falco's weapons, Roy's sword....

Instinctually, Marth reached for Falchion. It was still there. He wondered if it would be there the next day.

"Keep checking, then," Marth said, then left the room.

_I need a search party,_ he thought. One person couldn't do the job well enough. He thought of the possible people he could get to check. Link, perhaps. He had a growing friendship with Samus. He also wanted it to be secret. They could have certain codes or something if one of them were caught. It could work. The idea grew on him, and he went to Link's room.

"I want you to come down to the library with me," he said. Before Link could say anything else, he went to Samus's room and said the same thing. He hurried downstairs to the library, found a table at the very back of the room, and waited the few seconds for the other two to make it.

The library was one of the places he wanted to check. He scanned the rows of bookshelves, looking for something. He couldn't see much from a wooden table, but he hoped to find something. A book on the ground. Maybe a hidden message from Roy inside. If he was really under attack, he wouldn't have time to write a message, though. But he still hoped for signs of a scuffle.

Link and Samus walked down to the table and sat down. Marth was still amazed at how tall Samus was; she towered over the other women in the academy and was almost taller than Marth himself. Ganondorf and Donkey Kong had some competition. (Of course, in the width department, she was in a class by herself.)

"Well," Samus said, "I take it from the fact that we're at the very back of the library in the farthest corner that you want this meeting to be secret."

"Kind of," Marth said. He lowered his voice to a murmur. "I found some more clues about Roy's disappearance. Well, not _clues_, exactly, but possible arrows that might point us in the right direction. I checked in his room. I thought by the looks of it, he may have gone somewhere else when he got captured. His bedsheets weren't neat enough for him to have been lifted carefully in his sleep, and if there was a scuffle, the bedsheets would be messier and the room would likely be a wreck."

"What if it was a smart criminal?" Link asked. "He could have put everything back."

"There would probably be _something_ he missed," Marth countered. "Scuffed-up mark on the carpet. Maybe blood if there was violence involved. Something small knocked off the shelf. I checked, and there was nothing there."

Marth stood up in preparation for pacing around. Samus reached across the table and pulled him back down.

"It's not going to be that much of a secret if we're getting up and walking all around the library," she said. "And for all we know, it wasn't a man who did it. A woman might have done it as well."

"I know, I'm just using 'he' as an example," Marth mumbled.

"And have you ever considered that nobody took Roy at all?" she continued. "Maybe he took the weapons and fled from guilt or because he thought he was close to getting discovered."

Marth thought about it. The bedsheets were as if Roy had simply gotten up and walked out of bed. Also, only his Sword of Seals was missing. The one thing he absolutely couldn't leave behind if he left.

"But why would he take the weapons?" Marth asked. He felt the urge to get up and pace around again but resisted it. "Roy's our friend. He's one of the good guys. It wouldn't make sense for him to commit a crime out of the blue and then run."

It _was_ a possibility, though. An unlikely one, and one that _couldn't_ be true, but the thought lingered in Marth's mind.

"I still don't think that's likely," Marth said. "Maybe it's true, but if that's the case, then, like Falco said, he could always just get some more weapons back in his dimension, and if Roy really is guilty, then maybe we shouldn't worry about him leaving." He tried to push the thought away and focus on another subject. "I think someone took him, and let's focus on that for now. I think he went somewhere else and then got captured. The library was one of the places I was planning on checking."

"Maybe he went to the kitchen to get some coffee," Link suggested. "We all know he likes it, and at one in the morning or whenever he got up, it would seem appropriate."

Marth nodded. "Still bummed about losing and unable to sleep...makes sense. But anyway, let's form a search team. Just the three of us. In secret."

"Aren't we already looking?" Link asked.

"It's more than that," he continued. "We could have a set of codes or something. If one of us got captured, we could leave a code. Or leave a hint for a secret meeting. In fact, it might be a good thing if one of us got captured. Then we could point the others in the right direction."

Link frowned. "I don't think a code's going to do much good if you're unconscious."

"That's why we have to work it out. But we could do undercover work and all sorts of things. It would be a lot more effective than just looking around rooms and asking basic questions."

Samus grinned. "I can do sneaking around. Did I ever tell you about the time I head to infiltrate a Space Pirate mother ship without my Power Suit?"

"No. But let's save that for later. What should we call ourselves?"

A handful of names were thrown around. The Seekers. The Searchlights. Eventually, they settled on Trackers. They weren't necessarily "tracking" anything, but Link said it sounded spy-like and that it fit the group. So Trackers it was.

"I'll come to you guys whenever there's going to be another meeting," Marth said. "But in the meantime, do what you can to see who's the culprit behind all this. And from now on, let's call the person we're looking for Mastermind. It feels appropriate to give our target a name." Marth grinned. "Okay. Meeting adjourned."

Marth wanted to stay and look around the library. The other two got up and left, apparently heading for other destinations and searching for clues. Marth thought about the meeting. He thought it went over well. Three beat one, that was for sure.

Who could be the culprit...or Mastermind? Roy wasn't it. That much was certain. It couldn't be him. How many sinister people were at the academy? Bowser and Ganondorf. The first two people that came to mind when he thought of evil acts. They seemed too big and power-reliant to go for sneaky acts, though. They'd much rather blow everything up to get what they wanted rather than to sneak around at night. Who was good at sneaking?

Marth remembered what Samus said. _"I can do sneaking around."_ Was Samus Mastermind? Of course not. Like Roy, Samus was a friend. What evil motive would she have?

Nonetheless, Marth decided to keep an eye on her. He got up and began looking around the library. He wandered through the rows, looking for a book on the floor, a torn page, a lopsided book, or anything out of place. It wasn't until the second floor when he found a book lying on the floor in the Super Smash Bros. section, where Master Hand wrote down histories and biographies for the fighters, past and present, and catalogued discoveries and the past of the Linking Dimension. He bent down, picked the book up, and looked at the title. _The Linking Dimension._ He opened it up and flipped through the pages quickly.

_I'll come back to this and read it later,_ he decided. He set the book back on the shelf and walked out of the library to go check in some of the other rooms.


	12. Chapter 12: Marth: Round Three

As eager as Marth was to look for more clues, the semifinal round of the Ultimate Tournament came, and Marth had to abandon his duties to participate. He hoped the tournament would be over soon so that he could spend his time looking for Mastermind. And even then, would it be too late? Would Mastermind have completed his plan by then? Or her, as Samus had pointed out. Marth was slightly suspicious of Samus's sudden acknowledgement of that and what Samus was capable of ("sneaking around"). He hated thinking that he accepted Mastermind into his group of Trackers, but there wasn't a whole lot that could be done about it.

Marth's battle was the last in the line of three battles before the round was over. And after that, there was only one battle left. Marth had a sneaking suspicion that Mastermind would have completed his goals by then, which put him under a sense of pressure to find him soon. The clock was ticking, and he had to make it stop.

So he wasn't nearly as excited as usual to watch the first battle between Donkey Kong and Ganondorf. Anybody looking at him would have known his mind was elsewhere. A million Smash Coins suddenly didn't seem to mean as much to him anymore. What good was money if you were dead, anyway?

The battle between the two super-strong titans was fierce. The fight took place on Brinstar. The battle started, and Donkey Kong pounded the ground with his fists instantly, which knocked Ganondorf off his feet. He followed it up by smashing him into the ground with both his fists, then throwing him off the edge of the stage. Ganondorf grabbed back onto the edge, pulled himself back on, and kicked Donkey Kong in the stomach. DK flipped back up instantly but was met with Ganondorf's Warlock Punch and got sent flying even farther. DK used his momentum to grab onto one of the squishy tentacle-like strings holding a platform to the ground--Zelda flinched in disgust--swung around, and kicked Ganondorf right in the stomach. Ganondorf was unable to make it back to the stage and lost the battle.

"Yes!" Link cheered through his teeth. "Now if Ganondorf decides to attack Hyrule again, we can just get Donkey Kong to fend him off!"

"I didn't like it when he grabbed that squishy thing," Zelda said, grimacing.

"It helped him win the battle," Link defended.

Marth forced a smile on his face which he didn't pour any emotion into at all. The two Hylians noticed his lack of excitement.

"Worried about your battle?" Link asked.

Zelda, bearer of the Triforce of Wisdom, saw past that. "Worried about the series of crimes?"

Marth sighed. "Yes. It's hard to get energized about the tournament when there's an anvil hanging from a burning rope above your head. Let's just say it makes you a little nervous." He looked at them both and lowered his voice. "I feel like I'm working under a time limit. Any second now, M--the culprit is going to execute his big plan. And we don't even know where Roy is."

Link nodded. "We're going to have to speed up the searching process. But if something _does_ happen, all of the greatest fighters are gathered together in one spot. I think we have a fair shot at taking him down."

Marth frowned. "I wouldn't be so sure about that. Only somebody very stupid would attempt to take on everybody with just brute force."

Everybody else was standing up and leaving, so Marth decided to leave before he would look conspicuous. He arrived back in the lobby, walked into the kitchen, grabbed a glass of water, sat down at a table, and thought.

_Who are the possible suspects? We've got Ganondorf and Bowser, the two evil guys...maybe Mewtwo, because he's supposed to be the most savage Pokemon of all or something along those lines...and, as much as I hate to think about it, Roy and Samus._

Marth was actually suspicious of everybody. He barely even trusted Mr. Game and Watch. The guy couldn't talk and was the most mysterious person or creature to ever come into Smash School. What if he was part of an alien race bent on turning everybody into black, 2D creatures like he was?

He thought of an overused line: Trust no one. As stupid as it sounded, it fit perfectly with the situation.

_Mastermind's hideout...it could be anywhere in the Linking Dimension. A cave, in the forest, or even somewhere in Smash School, though I doubt that; the building's only so big._

He doubted that Mastermind's hideout was in another dimension, because there were records of Teleporter usage that were uploaded to a computer every time someone used it. If someone was sneaking off in the middle of the night, they could be traced quite easily. It was initially meant so that if someone wandered off without telling anybody, they could (hopefully) be found. Fortunately, it could also be used to catch a criminal.

Roy and Samus...heroes (and heroines) that had saved their dimensions. It would make no sense to suddenly "turn to the dark side," as they say. If they really were the culprits, it wouldn't be because they planned to take over the universe. Maybe they were doing something they weren't supposed to and panicked when something didn't go right. Did Samus kidnap Roy? He didn't know. He was determined to watch everybody carefully for signs of guilt, remorse, or wondering how the fellow he or she kidnapped was doing.

He was so lost in his thoughts that he was startled when he looked at the kitchen's clock and discovered that it was five minutes until the next match was to start. With nothing else to do, he got up, went to the Teleporter, and teleported to Battlefield, where Mewtwo and Link would battle.

After a few minutes, the floating stands began to fill up with spectators. Mewtwo and Link warped onto the stage, and Master Hand began the usual announcements. The battle started, and Link moved cautiously closer to Mewtwo.

"A little ironic," Mewtwo commented, "that first your younger form battles me, then Roy, then you. Three of the Four Swordsmen." His eyes moved to Marth's face without moving his head. "Maybe I shall fight Marth once this battle is over."

Marth remembered how Roy had barely touched Mewtwo during his fight. He hoped Link wouldn't meet the same fate.

Unfortunately, he did. Link swung his sword at Mewtwo, holding his shield up in case Mewtwo countered. Mewtwo moved his body to the side, then grabbed Link mentally and hurled him over the edge of the stage. Link grabbed back on, rolled onto Battlefield, and swung his sword around him as he jumped up. He was tripped by Mewtwo's tail, then slammed back into the ground with it. Link got back up, then threw his boomerang at Mewtwo, who teleported to dodge it, and leaped at Mewtwo when he reappeared. Although Mewtwo blocked it with his mind for the most part, he was still hit by the blade and took some damage. He spun Link around and threw him into his boomerang.

"Good. You're learning," Mewtwo commented. It wasn't a sneer or a boast; he really meant it.

Link bared his teeth and stood up again. Marth knew it frustrated Link to be unable to fight his enemy. He threw his boomerang again, then swung his sword like a madman all around him. He actually got Mewtwo a few times. Since Link was more used to dealing with monsters and non-human enemies, he was doing better than Roy, Marth guessed.

"You fight quite well," Mewtwo said. "But I grow bored, so now I take the offensive."

Mewtwo was a man--or Pokemon--of few words. Although his sentences might sound strange and even a little corny coming from anyone else, the way Mewtwo said them made them sound powerful and important. Although perhaps that was because he could kill someone in a few seconds if he wanted to.

He slammed Link with his tail several times. The first hit was blocked by a shield but knocked Link off balance, the second hit tripped him, and the third one smacked him away. Before Link could go too far, he teleported in front of him and hit him in the stomach with a shadow-covered fist, knocking him even farther. He finished off the combo with a large Shadow Ball. Link couldn't make it back to the stage.

_He is _good, Marth thought incredulously. He wouldn't be overly surprised if Mewtwo won the tournament. And if Marth won his battle, he'd have to fight him. Mewtwo didn't fight in regular battles as often as the other fighters did, preferring to spend time by himself and increase his psychic power with mental training. Therefore, Marth knew little about how he fought, although the three battles with some of the Swordsmen were good indicators of his fighting prowess.

After the battle, Marth went to talk to Link.

"How are you feeling?" Marth asked.

Link shrugged. "A little bummed. But I was prepared for this, because Mewtwo is Mewtwo, after all." He grinned at Marth. "I don't need a dinner in the Mushroom Kingdom, if that's what you're asking."

Marth grinned back. "Well, I guess that's taken care of."

Samus walked in and interrupted the conversation. "Marth? Can I talk to you for a minute?"

Marth gave Link a small nod, then followed Samus to the kitchen. He glanced around the room uncertainly.

"Are you sure this is the best place for a meeting?" Marth asked.

"It doesn't have to do with...you know. It's about your fight."

Marth frowned. "Kirby?"

"I know he may look like an eight-inch-tall pink ball of cute, but he's one of the best fighters here. I fought him in the first round of the tournament. He has some abilities and tactics which he takes advantage of during the one-life limit of the battle."

Even though he didn't want to appear cocky, Marth couldn't help but feel like Samus was overreacting. He had fought Kirby before; he wasn't what Marth considered to be one of the "best" fighters at the academy.

"You don't believe me, do you?" Samus said, scowling a bit.

"Well...I...no, I don't. I've fought Kirby before, and he's not, well, the 'best' fighter here. I'll be prepared, but just because you lost to him--"

"It's not a matter of me losing to him," Samus interrupted, "it's _how_ I lost to him. And how Fox lost to him. Like I said, during long endurance matches, he may not seem that tough, but when there's just one life per fighter, he knows how to take you down."

Marth tried to follow her but couldn't. He had seen Kirby's tactics. He didn't see how Kirby could suddenly take him out. He decided not to get a big head, though, and made sure to remember her words.

"Well, thanks for the advice. I'll keep it in mind."

--

Marth looked at Kirby on the other side of the Green Greens. As always, Kirby's expression was one of carefree bliss, bouncing around in one spot and occasionally inspecting a flower by the side of the stage. In a strange sort of way, Marth thought more people should be like Kirby.

Master Hand got done with the announcements, and the battle started. Remembering Samus's words, Marth eyed Kirby cautiously. Kirby didn't seem to feel under pressure at all. Marth walked toward Kirby, then sped up at the last second, jumped sideways, and stabbed at him. The sword missed. Kirby had moved his body slightly, and the tip of the sword was stuck in the ground. Being only eight inches high certainly gave him an advantage.

Kirby looked at Marth hungrily.

Before he could react, he was pulled into Kirby's mouth by his vaccuum-like sucking. He tried to push and shove his way free, but Kirby's elastic body would not let him go. He could some of his power being drained from him as Kirby copied his abilities. Finally, he was spat back out, slightly coated in saliva. He wiped some of it from his hair and looked at Kirby's new blue-colored hair. Kirby grinned at him.

A little miffed at Kirby, Marth lunged at him and swung his sword at the ground several times. Kirby parried them with an identical sword, then stabbed Marth in the foot. Inhaling through his nose sharply, he tried not to grab his foot and yell. Kirby took the opportunity to use his Final Cutter technique and send Marth into a collection of yellow blocks. The shockwave also hit a bomb block, and it exploded, sending Marth into the air and landing in front of Kirby again. Kirby peered into his face as if to check if he was okay. As angry as Marth was at him, he couldn't help but feel a little grateful.

Still, his goal was to defeat him, so he rolled back to his feet and prepared to fight Kirby again. He aimed a kick at Kirby, then stabbed down and got Kirby with his sword when he moved out of the way. He felt a twinge of guilt at hurting the small guy, but it was a tournament battle, after all. Kirby wasn't feeling sorry for him. Or maybe he was. Actually, Kirby usually looked sorry to everyone he fought. He never held back, but he also seemed concerned (in his blissful, lighthearted way, of course) about his opponent's well-being.

Marth's hesitation cost him. Kirby came back and kicked him in the chest repeatedly with an aerial move, then stabbed Marth in the chest and knocked him over the growing pile of blocks on the left. When Kirby leaped over, Marth hit a bomb block with his sword and engulfed Kirby in flames, sending him up. He finished the move by leaping up and knocking Kirby straight back down by smacking him with the tip of his sword.

Kirby got back to his feet, grabbed Marth, flew up into the air, then slammed him back down. He kicked him in the chest repeatedly again, then gave a final kick to send him over the edge of the stage. Feeling panicky, Marth grabbed onto the stage and jumped back up. In the air, he looked up to see Kirby over him, holding his sword out.

Marth realized what he was going to do. He also realized that he couldn't stop it.

Kirby smashed him with his sword and sent Marth straight down into the bottom blast line using the "meteor smash" Marth himself often used. Marth lost the third round and the Ultimate Tournament. None of the Four Swordsmen were moving on.

--

"Hey, Marth! Are you okay?" Link asked after Marth came out of the Teleporter.

Marth grinned. "I don't need a dinner in the Mushroom Kingdom, if that's what you're asking."

_This is going to become some sort of inside joke,_ he thought, grimacing. He noticed Samus out of the corner of his eye. He turned toward her and rolled his eyes.

"Feel free to say 'I told you so,'" he said.

"I told you so."

"Thank you. I don't really feel that bad about it, though. Now I have more time to look for Mastermind." He looked around him to check if anybody had heard him use that term.

"Zelda and I are going for a walk outside," Link said. "So if anybody asks where we are, we aren't kidnapped, we're just getting some fresh air."

From Marth's understanding, Link and Zelda had been friends since childhood, apparently, after Link sneaked into Hyrule Castle when he was about twelve years old. After Link had saved Hyrule and then come back from the land of Termina, he had several years to increase his bond with her. By this time, it was obvious that there was a little chemistry going on between them. If they both went on a walk together, likely, it wasn't just for some fresh air. More like a date.

"Mind if I join you?" Marth asked. He didn't want to ruin their romantic time together, but there were several reasons he wanted to go along. #1: After a long, hectic, battle-filled day, a breath of fresh air and a relaxing walk was just what he needed. #2: If they ran into any danger--like, say, Mastermind--he would be there to help them fight. And #3: If they found any clues, he wanted to be there to see them.

Link didn't seem too disappointed, however. "Sure. We're going out to the pond." Yep. Definitely a little romance drifting through the air.

Marth followed him to Zelda, who was waiting on a chair in the lobby. They got up and walked out of the academy.

"I've already talked to Samus," Zelda said. "She knows where we're going."

"So no search parties looking for us," Marth said. "And no breaking the rules when nobody knows where we are and goes into a panic."

They waited until they were a fair distance away before starting up conversation again.

"So, none of the Four Swordsmen are going to the final round?" Zelda asked.

Link shook his head. "Nope. Still, we tried our best. Who's going on? Donkey Kong, Mewtwo, and Kirby, I think."

Marth grinned slightly at the mention of Kirby. "Being short can give you an advantage. Especially when you're really, _really_ short. I guess from now on, we're going to need to train for all kinds of opponents."

"That's why we're here, right?" Link said. "I still feel good about Donkey Kong beating Ganondorf that easily. It lets me know that Ganondorf's got some competition."

Zelda nodded, but her expression turned sad. "I feel sorry for Roy, though. He's not even here to see the last of the tournament."

Marth looked at the setting sun. "We'll find him. Eventually, we'll settle this. Good always wins in the end."

"Find anything else clue-wise?" Link asked.

"There's a book in the library that was on the floor in the Super Smash Bros. section," Marth answered. "It was called 'The Linking Dimension.' It has to do with the past of the Linking Dimension and that kind of thing. I haven't read it yet, but I plan to."

Marth thought about that. If Mastermind really was reading that book, it might have something to do with his plan. Maybe he could even learn where his hideout was. Marth got motivated and suddenly decided that he wanted to go back and look for clues.

"I'm getting motivated. I think I'll go back and start searching around and reading the book. I'll see you at dinner."

Marth turned around and jogged back to the academy. Could he really find out Mastermind's plan by reading the book?


	13. Chapter 13: Trio Becomes Duo

"Oh, hey, Marth. Just in time for dinner."

Marth stopped at the entrance to the academy. Peach was standing there, having just seen Marth run back.

"Already? Isn't it a bit early?" Marth asked. He had been hoping to read the book as soon as possible. He sighed. "Well, what's for dinner?"

"Pot roast!" Peach announced proudly. "And corn bread, and beef fried rice, and chicken noodle soup--not that lame canned stuff--and--"

"Alright, alright," Marth interrupted. "I didn't need the whole slew. Is it ready right now?"

"Yeah, everybody's in the kitchen." Peach frowned and looked around Marth. "Where are Link and Zelda?"

"Still walking. I came back here on my own. They'll be here shortly."

Peach, proud of her cooking, frowned. "Well, you'll have to tell them they missed dinner. You know how much Link likes pot roast."

Actually, Link hated pot roast, but Marth decided not to mention that and followed Peach back into the kitchen. No doubt the huge dinner and early celebration was to herald the coming of the final round of the tournament. Grimacing, Marth wondered what Peach would cook up after the winner was decided.

--

The dinner was excellent. Which, unfortunately, threw Marth's mind off of his initial task: To read the book on the floor of the library. In fact, since he had put it back on the shelf, it would likely be a nightmare finding it again. Peach had insisted that he have one (or two or three or four) of everything, so by the time Marth reached the corn bread, he could barely stuff anything else in. He was slightly grateful when Donkey Kong, understanding Marth's reluctance, grabbed the plate and ate all the remaining pieces in one bite by hurling them into the air and down his throat.

"That's disgusting," Peach murmured, although Marth had to admit that it was pretty interesting.

Since he was close to bursting, he decided he would take a nap. After a painful trek up the stairs and what seemed like a lifetime to reach his bedroom, he collapsed onto his bed and fell asleep.

--

Marth woke up, surprised, the next morning. He had been so full, exhausted, and sleepy that he had gone to bed right after dinner and slept all the way through the night. What was worse, he hadn't even entered the library to look through the book! If he really was working under a time limit, he had only a few days left.

He hadn't even gotten under the covers of his bed. He had fallen asleep with his clothes and shoes on and even Falchion still attached to his belt. He hurriedly hopped off his bed, got ready as quickly as he could, and rushed down the stairs.

He decided to ignore breakfast. The last time he ate, it distracted him from his mission and cost him valuable time. He grinned with dark humor as he thought of how that weakness could be exploited.

_"I'll never let you past!"_

_"Here, eat this."_

_"Yum...hey, come back here!"_

As hungry as he was, he turned in the opposite direction of the kitchen and to the library, where he would (hopefully) find out more about Mastermind. He entered the large, elaborate room but took no time to admire the decorations. Part of the library was in sunlight due to the position of the sun shining down through the overhead window. Marth climbed up the stairs and scanned the rows of shelves for the row he was looking for. Fortunately, the shelves were right in the sun's light. Eventually, Marth found the correct row and entered in.

_Now, to find that book. What was it called again?_

It was very basic, very simple, and related to the Linking Dimension..._Oh._ That's what it was called. The Linking Dimension. Tingling slightly with excitement, Marth looked at each book until he finally found the one wanted.

The book's cover was very bland. It was brown, simple leather with golden words saying "The Linking Dimension" across it. The pages were faded and worn. Apparently, it was very old. Marth opened the cover and half-expected to see a cloud of dust fly out. He squinted his eyes in expectation, but no such cloud arose.

The book was not huge and elaborate. There was no five hundred page history of every last little detail that went on inside the Linking Dimension. Master Hand had been very brief and simple with it. Marth wondered how he typed it. He imagined a huge keyboard and laughed a little. Maybe he had gotten Crazy Hand to act as the left hand and help him that. Teamwork to the max.

Marth sat down in a nearby chair and started to read.

_There are many, many dimensions that exist, with different worlds, continents, countries, and even planets in each. Some are mere parallel dimensions, carbon copies of another but with alternate histories. Others are different in every way, shape, and form. One dimension may be tens of thousands of years old while another may have just started. The Linking Dimension was created after many others were created first, and it acts much like a nexus, a crossroads for dimensions. I, Master Hand, and my "brother," Crazy Hand, were created as the caretakers and living beings of this dimension as no other living beings existed in it. We had our own language comprised of high-pitched sounds emanated from within us; after all, we have no real mouths. We communicate with our minds, really. Eager for knowledge, we quickly decided to learn as much as we could, and we eventually learned almost all languages in existence._

"Wow, Master Hand's an old guy," Marth chuckled.

_Friends though we were, we were polar opposites of each other. I have the instinctive urge to create and bring up, whereas Crazy Hand has the urge to destroy and create havoc. Even so, we were both very intelligent and knew more at our creations than the average person does when he dies. I understood that the Linking Dimension was a crossroads and knew that we could access each dimension somehow. So we built a machine simply known as a Teleporter which gathered the energy at the outskirts of the Linking Dimension and created a bridge to another area. It took years to complete._

_It was Crazy Hand who first came up with the idea of bringing warriors from other dimensions to fight here in the Linking Dimension. I understood that, for him, it was just to sate his need for violence, but it intrigued me as well. I agreed with him and decided to get started on the idea. We first built a building around the Teleporter--yes, the Teleporter came first, and the building was modeled after it--and made it suitable for fighters to stay. The original building had eight rooms, and we sought out eight fighters in various dimensions worthy to fight. At the last second, we decided to include four more fighters and had to make four more rooms. We sent out invitations in the form of talking balls of light to fighters we heard about through Dimensional Windows--devices that peer into other dimensions and act like satellites you can see through--and they all agreed to come. Thus, the Super Smash Bros. were created. Cautious of Crazy Hand's violent nature, I decided it would be best if he stayed out of the first generation--for I was positive there would be other generations in the future--and see how it went. In the second generation, I decided that he should come and challenge only the toughest fighters that made it to me. Our combined power was too much for any ordinary fighter to handle._

That seemed to explain the reason why Crazy Hand only showed up if fighters cleared the "Classic Mode" quickly and easily enough. Marth had managed to fight and defeat both Hands on occasion, but he had to admit, it was tough. Crazy Hand was probably able to take down one of the fighters on his own if he wanted to.

_We both created our own battling arenas. It was long, hard work. We put all our energy into creating balls of energy that would sustain the arenas, keep them afloat, and protect them from harm. My creation was called Final Destination, and, appropriately, I made it the last arena the fighters would have to go through if they went through the series of matches against well-designed copies of other fighters that we had created. Crazy Hand's was Battlefield and differed from mine slightly in that it had more platforms. We had thought of the idea of connecting them or sticking them next to each other, but as we are both radically different in personalities in design, so were the arenas. They can't come near each other without exploding. That's why Battlefield and Final Destination are so far apart. We upgraded them after the first generation in appearance and effectiveness, so they had more protection. One of the chief changes we both made were the backgrounds. We were fascinated with making realistic environments that would awe the fighters._

"Marth?"

Marth was so engrossed in the book that he jumped nearly a foot into the air when Peach said his name. He hadn't even heard anyone approaching. He looked at Peach's face and saw that she looked a little anxious.

"What is it?" Marth asked.

"It's Samus," she said. "She wants to speak with you. She looked upset about something. And I think I know what it is," she added, looking at the floor.

Marth was worried. Had something else happened?

"Okay, lead me to her," Marth said, putting the book back on the shelf.

Marth followed Peach out of the library, upstairs into the bedroom hallway, and into Samus's room. Sure enough, Samus looked agitated and was sitting on the edge of her bed in a tense position. Marth wondered if Mastermind had stolen something of Samus's.

"You wanted me?" Marth asked uncertainly, although it was more of a statement than a question.

"There have been some disturbing events," Samus said. Marth could hear the edge in her voice. "Go ahead and sit down if you want. There are some chairs over there." Samus pointed behind her without looking. Marth grabbed two chairs, offered one to Peach, and sat down in the one he had.

"What happened?" Marth asked.

"I think I've come to the definite conclusion that Roy is _not_ the little thief we've been looking for," Samus said. "This is based on two events. First of all, my Power Suit is gone."

"What!?"

"And if Roy really was who we're looking for, he couldn't have taken it because he fled. So yes, I think he really has been kidnapped. And then there's probably something even more disturbing." Samus glanced at Peach. "And I think you know what it is, Peach." Peach nodded. Samus looked back at Marth. "Link and Zelda haven't returned."

Marth sat up suddenly from his seat, knocking it over. "What!?! This is unbelievable! Who could have taken them? They were both far away from the academy, and the both of them were together. How in the world could they have gotten captured!?!"

Samus shrugged. "There are a couple of possibilities. Possibility number one is the one I'm hoping for, and it's that one of them was caught and threatened to be killed if both didn't come willingly. And then there's possibility number two, which I'm dreading: There's more than one bad guy here. The enemies may have overwhelmed them."

Marth shook his head. "That can't be possible. There's no such thing as an army here. There aren't enough villains. Link and Zelda should have been able to take them. Maybe if I had just stayed with them a little longer when I was walking with them, I could have--"

"Stop being melodramatic and blaming yourself," Samus chided. "Perhaps you should just be grateful that you didn't get caught as well. Then we'd have _four_ missing people."

"I know, I'm just stating what could have happened," Marth countered.

"No, you're blaming yourself. Maybe you could have and maybe you couldn't have stopped it. Let's concentrate on what we _can_ do to find them."

Marth nodded slowly. There was no point in throwing a pity party when things were disappearing like crazy, including people. That time was better spent looking for information.

"You're right," he said. Then he frowned. "So, now am I to understand that the trio becomes a duo? With Zelda gone, there are only two girls, not one."

Samus nodded. "It's pretty bad. Keep looking, Marth. We all will. Whoever has my Power Suit can do a lot of damage."

"At least you have your Zero Suit."

Samus glared at Marth.

"Don't tell me," he said.

"Yes, the Zero Suit is gone, too," she said. "So now I'm at a disadvantage both ways. This guy needs to be found soon before he can use any of the things he's stolen."

And, as Marth's mind reminded him, that could be only a couple of days away. Samus couldn't be Mastermind now; why would she steal her own things? At least he eliminated several of the fighters off his list. But that still left many people left, and with the clocking ticking quicker than it should, he didn't have a whole lot of time left to find out who it was.


	14. Chapter 14: Hit List

_How many people are left?_

Marth sat in a chair in his room, holding a pen and looking at a blank sheet of paper. He was trying to narrow down the list of possible suspects as well as anything else that would help. His door was closed so that nobody else could walk in and see what he was doing. He felt like a detective wannabe in a novel trying to solve a crime for himself.

He wrote down the names of the twenty-four fighters in the Super Smash Bros. Academy. He looked them over, then crossed out _Marth, Roy, Samus, Link,_ and _Zelda._ That left nineteen fighters left. He continued to look them over, trying to decide who was suspicious. Surely Mario wasn't a villain, or his brother Luigi, or Capt. Falcon, who was a bounty hunter, or--

_Basically, nobody who's known as a hero could be Mastermind_, Marth thought. He circled the names _Bowser, Ganondorf, Mewtwo,_ and _Mr. Game and Watch._ He looked at Samus's name and wondered if he should still circle her. Maybe she hid her own things for a reason. Or perhaps she stole them only to throw Marth off track. He still didn't believe Samus was Mastermind. That wouldn't even make sense.

_It's so stressing, not trusting anyone,_ Marth thought.

Next, he wrote down the places where the crimes took place. Roy--at least, according to Marth's information--was kidnapped in the library. Falco's weapons were stolen in his room. While the most basic conclusion would be that Mastermind's base was right inside the academy, how did that explain Link and Samus's disappearance? Did Mastermind follow them? Or was Link Mastermind? Marth felt guilty for suspecting his own friends, but he decided that he couldn't be too cautious. Likely, Mastermind's little base of operatinons was inside Smash School itself. Which, of course, left the question of where exactly it was. Smash School wasn't all that big; how could one hide so many people in one spot? Unless they were in multiple spots. But that would be even harder. The most obvious place to look would be in everyone's rooms.

_I've done who and where,_ Marth thought. _Now I need to answer the questions of how and why. What and when don't really matter here because I already know what they are._

Marth had no idea how Mastermind did it. Sneakily, that was for sure. He had the element of surprise and took down the victims before they could respond. But did he have a certain weapon? Maybe Falco's things had something to do with that. But whoever committed the crimes had good sneaking skills.

As for why...Link's world-domination idea still seemed the most likely case. Nobody stole and kidnapped like crazy in such a small dimension just for fun or to get ransom money. To commit such acts, Mastermind had to be an expert in these things. Someone genuinely evil..._or genuinely strange,_ Marth thought as he looked at Mr. Game and Watch's name. Maybe there was a pattern to the kidnapping victims as well. Maybe the Four Swordsmen were being kidnapped--in which case, Marth was in danger. Or maybe only fighters with special swords--again, Marth was in danger. Or people investigating and poking their noses into Mastermind's business. Marth was still in danger. Any way he looked at it, Marth might be the next to disappear.

Marth took his sheet of paper, tore it into as many pieces as he could, and tossed it in the trash can. He was done with it and didn't want somebody coming by, piecing the paper back together, and discovering what he was up to. He left his room and decided to go for a little 'walk.'

A walk was how Link and Zelda got kidnapped. Marth was half going to the spot where they disappeared to look for clues and half defying Mastermind to come and attack him. He stopped on the bottom step of the stairway and glanced around the lobby. No one was in there. He slipped around the corner and trotted silently to the exit and walked outside. He ran into the trees along the side of the path to make sure no one saw him. As much as he didn't want panic to ensue when everyone thought he was missing, he didn't want anyone to know where he was, either.

"I think little kids have lost their minds," Marth muttered to himself, still running. "Anyone begging for 'adventure' is borderline crazy. Nobody wants this."

He didn't stop running until he was far away from the academy. He wanted to get to and from the pond as quickly as possible so no one would think he'd gone missing, too. He still stayed in the trees, but he slowed to a walk and tried to catch his breath. It was only a little longer to the pond. He glanced around the trees to make sure nobody was hiding behind them, waiting to knock him unconscious, too.

_Maybe it'll be a good thing if I'm captured, too,_ Marth thought. _Then I'll know who it is and everything. Of course, then I have to escape...and I think there's a reason why Roy, Link, and Zelda haven't escaped yet. But still, I'm kind of hoping I'll see Mastermind here._

After another few minutes of walking, the pond came into view. This was definitely where Link and Zelda had been when they were kidnapped. It was perfect. They had stopped moving. Being a naturally romantic spot, Link and Zelda would likely have paid attention only to each other. And then--bam. Mastermind would have gotten them while they weren't paying attention.

He stood in front of the pond, scanning the area for any immediate signs of a fight. It was around noon, and the sun was shining right down onto the surface of the pond. As beautiful as it was, it didn't change Marth's impression of the scene of a terrible crime. And besides, he had no time to admire things as trivial as glittering ponds.

Marth decided to try his luck. He had no idea if Mastermind was around, but he wanted to see if he could lure the villain out anyway. "I know you're here, kidnapper," Marth said, raising his voice. He waited, looking around him. He especially paid attention to what was behind him, although he never turned his head to look. That would be the most obvious place to strike. He waited for a punch, a footstep, anything that would alert him to an enemy sneaking up from behind.

There was nothing. Mastermind never came. Feeling relieved and bitter at the same time, Marth turned around and looked at the area behind him. Nobody was sneaking up behind him. Mastermind wasn't at the pond after all. He likely wouldn't have been anyway, but it was possible. Marth sighed, turned back around, bent down, and examined the ground.

Marth grinned. As quick and sneaky and dirty as Mastermind was, he hadn't come back to clean up the evidence. There were footprints, depressions in the ground--lots of clues to be gathered. Butterflies fluttered in his stomach. _What do you know, I'm actually getting somewhere_, he thought.

There were some big footprints around the area. They had been smudged and covered slightly with dirt and sand, so it was hard to tell whose they were. He thought he could detect Link and Zelda's footprints as well, although they weren't as easy to see. In front of him, there was a spot where the dirt had been squashed and moved around, so it looked like someone fell. Maybe Mastermind conked one of them on the head.

_I need Samus for this,_ Marth thought. Samus was better as a tracker because, as a bounty hunter and speedy athlete, she could read tracks and decipher them much easier than the average person. Marth stood up and began to walk back to the academy.

_I really hope it's this easy,_ he thought. _I really do hope that we can find out who Mastermind is and stop him. End it right here. I wish things were back to the way they were._

--

"Hi, Peach. Do you know where Samus is?"

"Huh?"

Marth had just entered the academy again. Although someone--Peach--had seen him enter in from outside, he didn't care. If he could stop Mastermind in less than an hour...well, he would be happy, to put it plainly.

"I really want to talk to Samus," Marth said. "Do you know where she is?"

Peach shook her head. "No, she just disappeared somewhere, and now nobody knows where she is." Responding to Marth's facial expression, she hastily added, "But it's not like she's been kidnapped. She just said 'I'll be back in a second' and walked away somewhere."

Please_ don't tell me she's been kidnapped next,_ Marth thought. _Oh, please don't._

"Okay," Marth said, trying to swallow back his rising mixture of emotions. "When you see her, come tell me. I'll be doing Multi-Man Melee downstairs."

Marth hurriedly rushed past Peach and walked down the stairs. The situation felt like a balloon. He had been struggling for such a long time to blow it up, and right when he finally did, it popped. He tried to listen to Peach's words and tell himself that Samus hadn't gotten kidnapped, but he still felt edgy. Besides, who could kidnap Samus? She could probably hear someone sneaking up behind her in a crowded room.

He pushed the matter from his mind and walked into the Multi-Man Melee Room. He pushed the Endless Melee button and was teleported to Battlefield. _Crazy Hand's creation_, Marth thought, remembering what he had read.

In Endless Melee, a fighter would battle as many weak, basic, wiry fighters as they could before they were either knocked off the stage or decided to quit. It was very fun and was a nice way to train. Fighters were constantly trying to break each others' records for the highest score of them all. Currently, Luigi had the highest score, which shocked everybody as Luigi had rarely been on an adventure and didn't do much fighting himself.

Marth landed on the stage and prepared himself for the Fighting Wire Frames. A few seconds passed by, and then a couple of strange beings made of purple wires appeared on the stage as well. He lunged at a Male Wire Frame, which was closest, then turned and sliced a Female Wire Frame who had attempted to hit him from behind.

This process repeated for a long time. Marth tried to keep his mind on fighting but couldn't help but wonder where Samus had wandered off to and why she was taking so long. Maybe she really had been kidnapped. In which case, Marth's fantasy of solving the mystery would vanish in a puff of smoke. Every time his mind wandered, he started to take more hits, so he concentrated on defeating the next Fighting Wire Frame.

After defeating his one hundred and twenty-eighth Fighting Wire Frame, he decided to call it quits. He was exhausted, and he wanted to wait for Samus peacefully rather than fighting until he dropped and then hearing Samus's voice call him on the microphone in the Multi-Man Melee Room. That microphone had helped and annoyed fighters during Multi-Man Melees. A fighter could be told that Master Hand called them, for instance, while Young Link might use it to annoy the living daylights out of whoever was fighting. To end the Endless Melee, he touched a button on his Home Bracelet and waited to be teleported out.

The words "Unable to Return" appeared on a miniature screen on his Home Bracelet. Puzzled, Marth pressed the button again. The message appeared again. He ignored it long enough to defeat a few more Wire Frames, then jammed the button as fast as he could. The message still displayed.

It wasn't just the fact that he couldn't leave an area full of dangerous enemies that scared him. It was the fact that if the Home Bracelet had stopped working, the blast lines had, too. If Marth was knocked off, he wouldn't be teleported back to Smash School. He would fall and fall and fall all the way down until he _landed_ on Smash School and died a painful death.

But then something even scarier happened.

The Fighting Wire Frames that had appeared next began to twitch. The strange hearts inside them became brighter and began glowing, as did their faces, which were made of the Super Smash Bros. logo. Endless Melee had turned into Cruel Melee.

In Cruel Melee, the Fighting Wire Frames became so quick and powerful that most fighters were defeated within seconds. If someone had defeated only one of them, it was something to brag about. And there Marth was, stuck on a small, floating island of metal, trapped with beings that could kill him in seconds. Even his Smart Shield wouldn't save him.

Marth jumped out of the way of one of the Fighting Wire Frames only to be kicked in the back by another. He went flying to the edge of Battlefield and barely managed to cling on. He almost dropped Falchion. He thought it would be kind of funny--in a dark, twisted sort of way--if someone had to go out and retrieve his sword in the middle of a lake. He climbed back on and blocked a punch with his sword. The punch was so powerful, it almost sent him flying again. He ran to the other end of the stage, swinging his sword at the Fighting Wire Frames to repel them.

_I guess I just have to accept it,_ he thought. _I'm dying here._

He jumped over the next Fighting Wire Frame and stood on the platform above it. He jumped to the next one just as two Wire Frames collided with each other where he was. One of the Wire Frames leaped up and punched him in the stomach. Marth landed on the platform he had just been on and was kicked to the center of the bottom of the stage. He was aching so much, he couldn't even lift his head up.

_Why fight it?_ he thought. _If I'm going to die anyway, I might as well let them have their fun. Even though they have no minds._

The five Fighting Wire Frames that had ganged up on him surrounded him. All he could see was a wall of enemies. He closed his eyes and waited for the pain that would come before his death.

It didn't come. When he opened his eyes, the Wire Frames were disappearing. First their hearts and faces went, and then the wires dissolved.

"Marth! Are you okay!?!" Samus's voice called on the microphone.

Glad to be alive, Marth reached over to his Home Bracelet and pressed the button that would return him to the academy. This time, it worked. He never thought something as strange and deadly as what he had experienced could happen.


	15. Chapter 15: Evidence

Marth was lying on a cold, metal table in the Recovery Room. If Samus hadn't returned from wherever she was, Marth would have been killed. He wasn't fearing so much for his own life as he was the knowledge of the crime disappearing down the tubes.

"Thanks, Samus," Marth said.

"You've told me that about seven times now."

"That's because I mean it."

Marth had his shirt and cape off as Samus was checking around his body for injuries. According to some high-tech machine which Marth had no idea how it worked, there were no serious breaks detected, although very minor ones were present.

"Samus, why exactly are you touching around for areas that hurt if we already know I ache all over?"

"To see if you can go on."

"Go on with what?"

Samus sighed. "Marth, you've been stepped on by a giant turtle, nearly had your arm crushed, and now you were nearly bludgeoned to death by some of the toughest enemies in existence. I know that even I couldn't take a beating like that and stand. Not easily, anyway." She looked Marth right in the eyes. "And if you're trying to find a villain strong enough to take on both Link and Zelda at the same time who's more cunning than we think, you can't go looking for him and barely be able to walk."

Samus stepped back from him. "Can you stand and walk okay?"

Marth sat up, groaning as he did so, and hopped off the table. He wobbled and almost fell on the spot, but caught himself and stood up straight. Samus looked at him critically, hands on her hips. Marth grabbed his sword, then swung it around, fighting an imaginary enemy. Although pain shot up when he pushed himself, he could ignore it and fight as normal.

"I can still fight," he said. "And as much as I feel like a wyvern trampled on me, I can still walk fine, too."

"I suppose I have to be Altean to understand that analogy," Samus muttered. "And don't lie to yourself; if you really can't fight or even walk, don't push it. Are you sure you can--"

"Yes," Marth interrupted. "I won't say I feel peachy because I don't. However, I feel ready to fight in another battle if I have to." He sighed. "And I don't think I have much of a choice, either. We have to find our friends, and time's running out. I'll _have_ to fight to find them."

Samus nodded. "Alright, put your clothes back on. I think we're done here."

Marth put his shirt and cape back on, glad to escape the cold of the Recovery Room.

"You know, Samus," Marth said, "when all this is done, can we paint the Recovery Room orange or something?" Samus stared at Marth with what everyone called the "Samus Eye," where she tilted her head down to the side and stared at someone with a critical expression. "When everything's white, it becomes boring and uncomfortable. Not to mention when someone's bleeding, bright red against a pure white background makes things look creepy." Samus continued to give Marth the Samus Eye. "And is it possible to make the examination table warm and fluffy instead of cold and metal? Nobody feels comfortable sitting on that. No wonder people don't like doctors." When the Samus Eye became unbearable, Marth switched the subject in order to break Samus's eye contact. "Where were you when I was looking for you?"

The Samus Eye vanished. Marth exhaled and hoped Samus didn't notice. "Tailing Ganondorf as part of our little Trackers thing. He didn't do anything suspicious, though. Peach almost blew my cover." Samus scowled. "She said you wanted me and that it was important. Does it have something to do with Mastermind?"

Marth nodded. His previous excitement returned to him. "I think we may have him, Samus. I went to the pond where Link and Zelda disappeared and found a bunch of prints. I could discern what some of them were, but--"

"But you need me to see what most of them are," Samus finished. Marth nodded.

"You were trained in this sort of thing, right?" Marth asked. "Besides getting in your Power Suit and shooting things left and right, you were trained in espionage, tracking, and, apparently, footprints."

"The Chozo were responsible for most of it," Samus said. "Especially my athleticism. The Galactic Federation taught me the other half. ...Well, more like other quarter. But anyway, let's get going."

"If we're lucky," Marth said excitedly, "we can find Mastermind today. What do you think?"

Samus thought for a bit as they left the Recovery Room. "If he doesn't cover up the clues you found and if he doesn't leave Smash School, likely we'll find him. Or her, of course. Then there's the matter of beating him."

"We can do it," Marth said. "If we know what he's up to, I'm sure we can beat him. And if we get captured as well, maybe we can escape and get the secret out."

Samus remained silent as they walked. Neither of them talked as they made their way to the pond. Marth used the silence as a chance to think some more.

_I think we've got it,_ he thought. _If the prints are still there, Samus can read them and see who they belong to and what happened. And I now doubt that Samus is Mastermind, because I was about to be killed by those Wire Frames. I was complete T-O-A-S-T toast. There's no reason for stopping my execution if I'm about to die anyway._

Finally, they arrived at the pond. Marth, fearful of the worst, closed his eyes. If the tracks were gone, their hopes were destroyed. He would have led Samus to the scene for nothing and raised both of their hopes only to crash them back down. Inhaling, he opened his eyes.

The tracks were still there.

Marth exhaled deeply. Their hopes were still intact.

"A little nervous?" Samus asked half-jokingly.

"Just a little," Marth replied. "They're still there. I thought I would go insane if I opened my eyes and saw that they weren't." Marth bent down with Samus to examine the tracks. "Can you make anything of them?"

For the next few minutes, Marth sat back while Samus examined the tracks and footprints. The sun was starting to set; it had been a long day. And Marth felt like it was only going to get longer. After everything he had been through, he was still going to attempt to tackle Mastermind. He was either brave or crazy.

"What's your dimension like, Samus?" Marth asked. He wanted to ease his tension. If he was a stick, he was close to snapping. "I don't know much outside of my world. I know everybody else has these weird, advanced machines, and I don't understand how any of it works."

"Actually, from what I've heard," Samus said, still examining the tracks, "I'm even more advanced than most of the people here, although Fox, Falco, and Captain Falcon are about on par with me. Basically, a lot of research has been done, and we've found new ways to build things and have discovered more and more of the universe. As for how machines work...well, we just use different power sources that never run out to fuel things. Some very old-fashioned people still use electricity."

This puzzled Marth. "You can use lightning to power machines?"

Samus laughed--one of the few times Marth had ever heard her do that. "Well, not lightning, but...." Samus stopped mid-sentence.

"Have you figured it out?" Marth asked.

"Pretty sure," she said. "Have you noticed these burn marks on the ground?"

Marth looked over Samus's shoulder at what she was pointing at. Part of the ground had been blackened and sunk in a little bit.

"What caused it?" Marth asked.

"Well, I've got a theory," Samus said, "but I'm not saying it until I point out the rest of it. Did you see the big footprints?"

"Yeah, I saw those. Who do they belong to?"

"The only people with feet that big are Bowser, Ganondorf, and Donkey Kong."

"So one of them was the attacker?"

"Yes."

"But none of them are exactly good at sneaking around," Marth pointed out. "Can you imagine Donkey Kong trying to squeeze himself against a wall to hide in the shadows? You can't."

"You're right," Samus said, "but they didn't necessarily have to do it themselves."

"What do you mean?"

"Who controls a large army loyal enough to go around stealing a bunch of things without being spotted?"

The answer hit him. "Bowser."

Samus nodded. "Burn marks from his fire breath. Big footprints that match the size of his feet. And the power and authority to get someone to go snooping around for him. Not to mention the size and strength to knock out someone with a single blow. Bowser is Mastermind."

Marth stood up and looked back in the direction of the Super Smash Bros. Academy. "I still don't know what Master Hand was thinking when he invited Bowser to the mix," he said, "but I can tell you now it ends here. Bowser's either dying or going back to where he came and not coming back."

"We need to prepare ourselves," Samus said. "Bowser almost defeated you when you fought him in the tournament battle. Furthermore, his time in the Super Smash Bros. Academy has taught him to fight melee-style rather than using the same attack or device over and over again. He's smarter now."

"I'm already prepared," Marth grumbled. He started to move in the direction of the academy but was immediately stopped by Samus, who could move at an unnatural speed to the point where she was just a blur passing by.

"I'm not just talking about fighting," she said. "We need to do this strategically. We can't just fight it out in the academy, because we could destroy much of it. And if Bowser uses his fire breath, he could burn it down. Do you see where I'm going?" Marth reluctantly nodded. "I know you want to fight, but we need to sit down and think it through."

Marth sat down on the sand and sighed. "Okay, so what did you have in mind?"

Samus, also on the sand, thought for a bit. "We need to lure him away from the building. I'd like to get him as far away as possible, but not to the point where he becomes suspicious. I just don't know how to do that."

Marth thought about it. "I think we all know he likes Peach, much as he denies it."

Samus shook her head. "I don't want to get anyone else involved."

Marth laughed. Samus eyed him strangely. When he stopped laughing, he decided to answer Samus's unsaid question.

"You have blond hair."

Samus got it. "Listen, Marth, there is _no_ way I am wearing a--"

"Alright, alright, we won't do that," he said. He couldn't help but let out another small laugh. Samus gave him the Samus Eye. Marth ignored her and kept thinking. His rumbling belly interrupted his thoughts.

"I guess we can't stay thinking for too long," he said. "We'll have dinner to get to."

Samus blinked. "Dinner...there we go! I think I've got it."

"Think you've got what?"

Samus propped herself up sitting on her legs. "Bowser likes meat. Almost to the point of insanity. So what we'll need to do is get a steak and then let him smell it. He'll follow it to wherever it goes, so we'll need to lure him far away from the academy."

"And then we gang up on him and beat him up," Marth finished. "We just need to make sure no one else smells it. That could ruin the whole plan."

"I could always open his window when he's not looking," Samus said. "It would be an easy matter to sneak into his room, open his window, and then escape. And since Bowser's got a more powerful nose than most other people, he'll probably smell it from afar and come looking for it."

Marth nodded. "Where do we get the steak?"

"Peach will probably bake one for us without a complaint if we ask her," Samus said. "You know how much she likes to show off her culinary talent."

Marth stood up. "It's settled, then. We do this tonight; if we wait until tomorrow, it might be too late."

Samus's eyes widened. "I just lost track of time! I didn't even realize what would happen tomorrow!"

The next day was the final day of the Ultimate Tournament. That was likely when Mastermind--or rather, Bowser--would strike. If they waited until tomorrow, likely, they wouldn't have a chance to stop him anyway.

"You're right," Samus said after she recovered from the shock. "We do this tonight. How's this for a plan? We eat dinner. Then, you ask Peach to bake a steak--which will likely attract Bowser anyway--and I sneak into his room and open his window. When the steak is ready, we carry it off to a spot far off."

Marth grinned. "I like that plan. Let's not kill any more time. Let's go."


	16. Chapter 16: Mastermind

"You ready?" Marth asked.

Samus nodded. "I'll be up in my room. When Bowser leaves...I'll go and do my thing. Now get going."

Both of them were standing in the lobby in front of the front doors. Samus walked to the staircase going upstairs. She turned, gave a small nod to Marth, and went up.

_It's now or never,_ he thought, trying to control the butterflies in his stomach. He steeled himself and walked into the kitchen. The smells of dinner hit him, and he tried to keep his mouth from watering. Despite the big "Cooks Only" sign plastered on the door in front of him, he walked inside to meet a busy Peach.

"You're not supposed to be back here, you know," she said, turning her attention to goodness-knows-what frying on the oven.

"I know," said Marth, grabbing a roll from a nearby basket. "I just came here to ask a personal favor."

Peach tried to snatch the roll from him, but Marth jerked his hand back, keeping hold of his prize. He took a bite out of it to ensure it was his.

"That roll was supposed to be saved for dinner," Peach said, glaring at him.

"I'm hungry."

"Then wait until dinner."

Marth defiantly took another bite of roll. Peach glared at him until he swallowed. Finally, her hard shell dissolved, and she sighed. "What's the favor?"

"Can you make me a steak?" Marth asked as casually as he could, leaning on the counter and biting into his roll again.

"Poof, you're a steak," Peach said, rolling her eyes. "We're just about to eat dinner. What in the world would you want with a slab of meat?"

"Then make it _after_ dinner," Marth suggested.

"Do you really want a steak that badly?"

Marth swallowed his bite of roll. "Yes."

Peach sighed. "Fine, but you'd _better_ eat it. Remember that you may not have room after dinner."

"I know, I know. I'll make room. Maybe."

Peach tried an imitation of the Samus Eye. Since Samus, of course, was the only one capable of successfully pulling it off, Peach just looked silly doing it. She held the look for a few seconds, then gave up and continued making dinner.

"Thanks," Marth said. He finished his roll and left the kitchen.

"It feels so empty," Peach said.

Marth stopped and turned around. "What do you mean?"

"At the end of each tournament, we all gather around and celebrate the winners. Not all of us will be there. And then I usually have Zelda cooking with me in the kitchen, but now she's now here to do that. Some of our greatest friends are missing, and we don't even know what's happened to them."

_I do,_ Marth thought, but he didn't say anything.

"It just doesn't feel right," Peach continued. "When you think about it, the end of the tournament should feel happy, but it makes you sad instead. I know Roy followed you around almost everywhere, and I know you normally would have celebrated the end with him, but now he's not even here."

"I've read many books," Marth said, "heard many stories, and done many things, and the lesson that I've learned from it all is that good always wins. Even if bad rules the day and seems like they've got the upper hand, we've always pulled through, no matter how bleak the outcome may look. Zelda will cook with you in the kitchen again, and Roy will celebrate the end of the tournament with me. Keep your chin up."

Peach smiled. "Thanks, Marth."

Marth left the kitchen and sighed. Now all he had to do was wait.

--

The cheeriness and positive mood of the dinner made it hard for Marth to dwell on any unhappy thoughts. Besides, Bowser was going to be caught--Marth couldn't help glaring at him from across the table when he wasn't looking--and then he'd 'fess up where Roy, Link, and Zelda were. Marth smiled, grabbed an apple from a bowl, and bit into it. He noticed Samus trying to get his attention several seats down. He gave her a small thumbs up, then returned to his plate of food.

"Marth asked me to make him a steak," he overheard Peach telling Mario. He glanced at her nervously. At first he wondered if that would blow his cover, but then he looked at Bowser and realized it could work for him. Bowser, who had previously been grumpily ignoring Mario and Peach sitting together, was now eyeing them with interest at the mention of a steak. Bowser gave a quick glance at Marth, then returned his attention to Peach. "First I said, 'Poof, you're a steak,' but seriously, what would a guy like him want with a steak? He's got a waist about the size of a toothpick."

"Maybe he just wants to put some meat on those bones," Mario suggested. "Can't say I couldn't go for a little steak myself. Some ravioli...maybe a little spaghetti and meatballs...."

The moment Mario began rambling about his favorite Italian dishes, Bowser lost interest and continued eating. Marth grinned and finished up his dinner.

--

Marth set down his book and smelled the air inside the lobby. It was thick with the scent of steak. _The smell of victory_, Marth thought to himself. He walked back into the kitchen, where the smell was so overwhelming it took all his willpower not to dive at the steak and devour it on the spot.

"Your steak's ready," Peach said.

"Looks good," Marth said. "A fine cooking job, as always. Thanks, Peach."

She smiled at having her cooking talent applauded. To her, cooking wasn't just a hobby; it was a craze. Which was nice, because nothing she made was ever disgusting.

Marth turned and saw Bowser's head peeking into the kitchen. He tried to suppress the smile threatening to appear on his face. It was working perfectly. _Samus, I hope you're moving_, he thought.

"I smelled meat," Bowser said, staring at the steak. "Uh, who's that for?"

"Well, it's none of _your_ business," Marth said, picking the plate up proudly. He held it in front of him so that Bowser would be further teased by it.

"Can I at least have a bite?" Bowser asked. Marth never thought he'd see the great King of the Koopas bargaining for a steak.

"Yeah, right," Marth said, walking past him out of the Cooks' Room. "One bite would be all it would take."

"One lick?"

Marth decided to improvise. "Alright, you can have some of it. Not all of it, though. I was going out to have a meal outside with it with a friend, but I suppose you could come along as well. However, this means that you have to behave yourself and not go wild over steak."

Bowser nodded. He had fallen for it, hook, line, and sinker. The plan was that Samus would see Marth walking out and she would follow him in secret until they both arrived at the place. Bowser would come, and then they would first demand the answers from him, and if he didn't comply, fight him. The fighting was only minutes away. Marth's heart thumped against his chest so hard he wondered if Bowser heard it.

He left the academy with Bowser following him. Trying to look casual, he scanned his eyes across the windows of the academy. He didn't see Samus, but of course he wouldn't be able to; Samus was sneakier than that. He turned left and headed off to a clear, grassy meadow. He hoped Samus was following him.

"Where's the spot?" Bowser asked anxiously. "I'm getting older, boy!"

"We're almost there," Marth said.

They walked on for a few more seconds. When the academy was out of sight, he stopped. He inhaled, then exhaled sharply.

"It's here."

Samus came flipping over his shoulder the moment he finished the second word. She took on a fighting stance behind him. Marth wondered what he should do with the steak; he didn't want to make Peach angry, and it sure looked delicious... He ignored his weaker feelings and tossed the plate over his shoulder.

"Hey, that's good steak!" Bowser protested. He growled. "Is this the friend you were talking about? I thought we were all eating steak."

"We're not," Marth said. "Neither are you. Where are they?"

"Hey, wait a minute," Bowser said slowly, narrowing his eyes. "This is no friendly gathering, is it? It's a trap."

Samus nodded. "Good. You're smarter than you look, which isn't saying much."

"Now answer the question," Marth said. "Where are they?"

Bowser grinned slightly. "You think I kidnapped the three kids?"

"We know you did," Samus said. "So tell us, or we'll fight."

"That would be interesting," Bowser said. "With no hope of winning the tournament, a little action _would_ be nice. I _will_ warn you, though; I _am_ the King of the Koopas. Koopa Kings were always tough as nails."

"I'm the prince of Altea, and Samus is a bounty hunter the likes of which we've never seen before," Marth said. "And we've always won in everything we've done. It would be much easier for all of us if you just told us where Roy, Link, and Zelda are and then turn yourself in."

"Well, I wouldn't want to make anything easy for _you_ morons," Bowser said. "It surprises me, the number of absolute wimps Master Hand's invited here. You've got crybaby balloons like Jigglypuff, two-dimensional freaks who can't talk, and then cocky jerks like you two."

"You're the one who's being cocky," Marth shot back. "Last chance; tell us where they are, or we'll attack."

"Bring it on, you pathetic idiots!"

True to his word, Marth leaped forward and swung his sword at Bowser, who shifted the center of his body to the left and dodged it. Marth swung his sword again but hit his shell and did no damage. Bowser clocked him in the head and sent him flying.

"I told you," Bowser said. "You're not as powerful as you think you are."

"Well, if you're not the King of the Koopas," said Marth, "you're certainly the King of Very Cheesy Lines." He got back to his feet and prepared to fight again.

Samus gave him a spinning kick to the stomach, then jumped and kicked him in the head. Ordinarily, kicks like those wouldn't have done much to Bowser, but Samus was both very fit and infused with the blood of the Chozo which boosted her strength to incredible degrees. Bowser fell over backwards but rolled back to his feet and swung at Samus as she jumped at him. She dodged his swipe and kicked off of his head. Although she landed expertly behind him, she couldn't dodge his Fire Breath, which knocked her forward.

Marth chopped at his tail, causing Bowser to roar in pain and turn around, swinging his claw at him. Marth parried the blow, then swiped across his belly twice, leaving two long scars. Bowser jumped at him, which completely knocked the wind out of him and sent him flying. Falchion flew out of his hands and landed a good distance away. He didn't even have the energy to get back up before Bowser stepped on him with his foot, holding him down.

"Remember, there are no Smart Shields to save you this time," Bowser said. "I can crush you quite--"

He was interrupted with a kick to the back of the head by Samus. She was burned and her clothes were singed, but she still kept on fighting. Bowser took his foot off of Marth and turned his focus on Samus. He tried to head butt her with his horns, but she dodged it easily and gave him a kick in the face. He tried his Fire Breath again, but she jumped over it and landed next to Marth. She reached her hand down. Marth took it and stood back up.

"I need my sword," he said. Samus nodded and continued engaging Bowser in battle. Marth headed off in the direction of his sword and almost fell. With everything he had been through, he almost couldn't walk. He tried to go another step and fell. The sword seemed so close, yet so far away.

_End it here_, he thought. _End it now. You can do it. Just keep going and grab your sword. Only a few more feet._

Marth crawled to his sword and picked it up. His anger and resolve spiked up, and he stood up, ignoring the pain he felt. He forced his legs to work, and he ran at Bowser, who had just punched Samus in the stomach and sent her flying.

"I'll give you one more chance, right here," Marth said. "Turn yourself in, and I won't cut you into pieces. Refuse, and you either die or feel a great deal of pain wherever we banish you to after we defeat you."

"On the contrary," Bowser said, "you don't look so good. First there was the tournament, and now I've been bashing you and stepping on you in this battle. I don't think you even have the energy to beat me. In fact, even Samus is starting to look a bit beaten."

"Wrong answer," Marth muttered. He lunged at Bowser and swung his sword in a flurry of blows. Bowser blocked some of them, but he soon wound up with cuts and gashes on his arms and chest. Finally, Marth swung his sword up to the right across Bowser's face, then stabbed him in the belly. Bowser roared, fire streaming from his mouth, then collapsed backwards.

"Is he finished?" Samus asked, stumbling toward him.

Marth stood over him. "He's unconscious. I stabbed him in the belly, but I wouldn't say it's anything fatal. You should probably get him to the Recovery Room and get him checked out. When he comes to, we can interrogate him."

"You should get to the Recovery Room yourself," Samus said. "Look at yourself, Marth; you're a mess."

Marth looked down at his body. His clothes were torn, and blood was seeping from several wounds in his body. He touched the corner of his mouth and realized blood had been coming out of it as well. The anger he had just felt started to fade away, and the pain and fatigue crept up on him until it was almost overwhelming. His legs wobbled, and he fell.

"Sorry," Marth apologized.

"What are you apologizing for?" Samus asked. "You just caught a villain and saved many people, Marth! I don't think it's strange that you're going to fall over. Get yourself to the Recovery Room and tell everybody what's happened, and I'll stay here watching Bowser."

Marth forced himself to stand back up. "There's no real danger, is there? Bowser's been caught. I can look for my friends. I _will_ look for my friends. You'd have to fight _me_ next to keep me from it."

Samus sighed. "Alright, fine. Go get some people to carry Bowser back, and I'll join you shortly."

Marth nodded and stumbled off in the direction of the academy. He smiled, closed his eyes, and breathed a sigh of relief.


	17. Chapter 17: A Terrible Mistake

It was over.

Marth had finally made it to the academy after what seemed like a very long walk. He had collapsed several times along the way and had to take a few minutes to rest, regain his energy, and try again. He eventually limped through the front doors, stopped in the middle of the lobby, and yelled, "Hey, guys! We need help!"

Mario, Fox, Falco, and Mewtwo came into the lobby after a few seconds, bewildered looks on their faces. Their mouths all hung open (with the exception of Mewtwo) when they saw Marth's condition. Falco closed his before the others', maintaining his macho status. Mario was the first to run up to Marth, technically being a doctor.

"What happened to you!?!" Mario asked. "Was it the kidnapper? Did he find you?"

"I found him," Marth explained. He almost collapsed again and decided to find a chair to sit in. Everybody but Mewtwo moved closer, interested in his story. "We--Samus and I--just recently discovered who the kidnapper was: Bowser."

"I knew it!" Mario exclaimed.

"Hold on a second. I'm not done. We lured him outside the academy using a steak, and then we defeated him. He's unconscious."

"Where's Samus now?" Fox asked.

"With him, making sure he doesn't get back up. Although she took a beating herself, Bowser took a worse one. If he tries to get back up and attack, she can beat him easily. I need some people to go and haul Bowser's body over to this academy. Have Samus tend to him, but make sure he's locked up somewhere, too. We don't want him getting away. He still hasn't coughed up where Roy, Link, and Zelda are."

Fox nodded. "Where exactly is Samus?" he asked.

"Exit the academy and then head straight left. You'll see them shortly."

Fox, Falco, and Mewtwo left. Mario stayed with Marth. "I'd say you're in need of a doctor, Marth. What say we go on over to the Recovery Room and get you fixed up?"

Marth nodded. Mario helped him up and aided him going over to the Recovery Room. As much as Marth hated going to the Recovery Room, he had to confess he was glad to see it this time. He laid down on a metal table, too sore to sit up.

"Now, what hurts?" Mario asked.

Marth gave a small laugh. "Everything."

"Go ahead and take your shirt off, and then I'll take a look at you."

Marth complied and set his shirt and cape on a nearby desk. The metal table ordinarily would have felt freezing to him, but as tired and sweaty as he was, it felt good.

"I don't plan on being here long," Marth said. "I want to look for my friends. We're this close to solving everything."

"Let someone else look for them, Marth," Mario said. "I know how much you want to see them again, but you just need to rest."

Marth sighed. "All this time, I was envisioning how finding them would be. The looks of joy on their faces. The relief we'd feel." He looked at Mario. "_Please_ let me go. I want to see them."

Mario rolled his eyes. He was a fun doctor to have. "Alright, but first, you have to relax a little bit. Ease them muscles. You look like crap, Marth."

"Thanks, doc."

The Recovery Room doors opened again, and a floating Bowser hovered in, still unconscious. Mewtwo was using his psychic powers to move Bowser. Fox, Falco, and Samus were following behind him, watching Bowser carefully in case he woke up. Samus smiled at Marth. "Having fun?" she asked rhetorically.

Marth groaned in response. "I'm not gonna be in here much longer. I'm gonna look for Roy, Link, and Zelda."

"Of course," Samus said, rolling her eyes. Mewtwo set Bowser on a large table inside a quarantined room. Master Hand had created force fields around the room that were borderline impossible to breach. It was meant mostly as a containment room, but it could also be used for things like surgery; the force fields could be thickened in color so that it was impossible to see in, thus keeping viewers' lunches in their stomachs. Fortunately, the room had never been used for such a purpose. "I'll take it from here," Samus said. She walked inside the room and closed the door. Fox, Falco, and Mewtwo left.

Marth leaned his head over to see into the room. "Is she going to be okay in there?" he asked.

"Samus will be fine," Mario said. "She's a skilled fighter, Bowser's been beaten unconscious, and Master Hand's created Safety Droids to neutralize anybody who goes wild. And besides, Bowser doesn't know the door code for getting out. Only Samus, Peach, Zelda, and I know it."

He pressed some buttons on a machine, and the machine began lowering over Marth. He had no idea what it did but decided not to ask. The machine scanned his body, then readjusted its shape, fitted itself over his legs, and vibrated. Marth closed his eyes, letting himself enjoy the sensation.

"Massager," Mario explained. "I figure if you're going to be up and walking around shortly after this, you'd better be able to walk."

The Massager continued vibrating around Marth's legs, then finally lifted back up and returned to its original shape and spot. Mario busied himself cleaning Marth's wounds. "The gashes will have to be stitched up later, when we have the time," he said. "But for now, we'll just have to settle for cleaning them and stopping the blood from coming out. Then you're free to go. Of course, you're always free to stay--"

"I'll go," Marth said. "As soon as you're done."

After a few minutes, Mario had cleaned Marth up and bandaged him wherever he needed to be bandaged. Marth got up off the table. He legs still hurt to walk on, but they felt sturdy. He knew they wouldn't collapse on him.

"I feel good as new," he said. "Well, not really. I'm off. Thanks, Mario."

"Don't push yourself," Mario told him.

"I won't...maybe," Marth replied.

"Wait, Marth," Samus said. She came out of the Containment Room, already wearing a lab coat and latex gloves. She was holding a couple of miniature devices in her hands. "If you're going to be leaving, perhaps you should take one of these."

Marth took one and stared at it strangely. "What is it?"

"Master Hand calls them Comms. They're kind of like cell phones, except more basic." Marth stared at her blankly. "Okay, so you don't know what a cell phone is, but we use them to communicate with one another. Whatever I find out, I'll tell you, and vice versa. Deal?"

"Deal." Marth examined the Comm. "How do I use it?"

"You see this number 8 on your Comm?" Samus said, pointing to it. Marth nodded. "Mine has the number 2. Push the button that says "2" on your Comm, and you'll open up a channel to me immediately. There are 25 different Comms for 25 of the people here, but since there's usually no point in carrying them all around the academy and we need them to communicate inside the Containment Room, we keep them in there."

Marth smiled. "Thanks. Be safe, Samus."

"You too, Marth."

"You're sure you can beat Bowser again if he wakes up?"

"Pretty sure. You worry about your own hide."

"Hey! That's my line!" Falco's voice called from outside the Recovery Room.

Marth thanked her again and left the room. He had no idea where he would find his friends. He stood in the middle of the lobby, thinking. _Bowser's room would be a nice place to start._ He left in the direction of the stairs going up. He pushed the number 2 on his Comm. He uncertainly held it up to his mouth. "Is it working?"

"Whoa!" Samus's voice came. "You don't need to hold it that close to your mouth, Marth."

"Sorry."

Her voice came out as clearly as it would have in real life. Marth was still convinced it was magic making all the electronic gizmos work. "Find anything yet?" Marth asked.

"No, I just started," Samus said.

"I'm going to look in Bowser's room," Marth explained. "When Bowser comes to, pelt him with questions."

"Don't worry, I will," Samus said. "Good luck, Marth."

"You too, Samus."

She spoke no more. Marth hung the Comm on his belt and pushed open the door to Bowser's room.

_What a mess,_ he thought. The room was so cluttered, Marth couldn't get through without stepping on something. He sighed, clapped his hands together, and started looking.

--

It was half an hour later. Samus was still working on Bowser. Bowser's thick hide had prevented any serious damage, such as broken bones, except for when Marth stabbed him in the belly. Thankfully enough, the blade had missed anything important, so Samus was busy stitching Bowser up and cleaning his wounds. She was almost done when he woke up.

"Huh? Where am I?" he asked.

"The Containment Room," Samus answered.

Bowser furrowed his brow. "Containment Room, huh? Don't like the sound of that. How about you get me out of here before I beat you to a pulp?"

"You could try," Samus said casually. "I know you suffered more damage than you pretend you did. You're in no position to be fighting me. And besides, there are Safety Droids in here which can knock you unconscious in half a second if you got wild." Bowser growled at her. Samus ignored it.

There was a vibration in her lab coat pocket. Samus picked up her Comm and answered it.

"Hey, Samus," Marth's voice said. "I'm in Bowser's room. This guy is an absolute slob."

"And proud _of_ it!" Bowser shouted.

"I take it the sleeping giant has awakened?" Marth asked.

"Yep. You called at the right moment. Now, Bowser, why don't you be a good freak and answer all my questions?"

"You've got some nerve," Bowser growled.

"Where are Roy, Link, and Zelda?" Samus asked.

"Like I'd tell you," Bowser grumbled. "Losers imprison me in some weird room with a weird girl, and you expect me to talk?"

Samus nodded. "You can stay in this room forever, or you can start talking. Your choice."

"I'm not telling you!" Bowser shouted.

"Yes, you will," Marth's voice said firmly. "You'll break at some point. Samus, keep at it. I'll keep looking."

The channel closed, and Samus put the Comm back in her pocket. She crossed her arms and stared at Bowser. She didn't say a word; she only maintained the Samus Eye.

"Quit staring at me like that, you freak!" Bowser yelled. "Didn't your mother ever teach you it's dispolite to stare at people?"

Samus was about to correction his mistake when someone knocked on the door behind her. She rolled her eyes and turned to the door. "Try to make a break for it, and you're dead," she warned Bowser. She pushed several numbered buttons, making sure to keep her body blocking them from Bowser, and opened the door a creek. It was Fox. He seemed both worried and angry.

"What?" Samus asked.

Fox looked over Samus's shoulder. "Has he revealed anything yet?"

"No. He's opening his mouth like crazy, but nothing of importance is coming out."

"Well, then, perhaps I should tell you something...."

--

Marth left Bowser's room feeling frustrated. He had been in there for half an hour searching for absolutely anything of importance; Falco's weapons, any of his kidnapped friends, his evil plan written on a sheet of paper, _anything_. He found nothing. Was Bowser smarter than he looked?

His Comm vibrated on his belt. He jumped, not expecting it, and almost pulled out his sword. He sighed in anger, picked it up, and accepted Samus's call. "I just searched Bowser's room. There's nothing--"

"Nothing in there?" she interrupted.

"Yup."

"That's because Bowser isn't Mastermind."

There was silence. Marth almost dropped his Comm. For at least a good thirty seconds, nobody said anything. _Bowser...not Mastermind? What?_

Eventually, he spoke again.

"How is that possible!?!" he yelled. "We found all the evidence! We did all the research!!"

"Fox's Blaster, Fire Cloak, and Reflector have just gone missing, Marth. How could he do that or even give anybody any orders if he's been in here the whole time? Bowser just confessed that he didn't really do it and that he just pretended like he did so he'd have something to boast about. Marth, we got the wrong guy."

For a moment, Marth considered hurling the Comm as far away from him as possible. He almost did it, too, but the little remaining self-restraint he had kept him from doing it. He sighed. "Alright, fine. Now what? The tournament ends tomorrow. What the heck do we do now? Twiddle our thumbs and wait for our demises?"

"I suggest we go back and take a look at the evidence we found near the pond," Samus said. "Meet me back in the lobby."

The channel closed. Marth stared down the hallway, still as a statue. How could they have been wrong? Just for a moment, their hopes were it. It felt good. And then, all of it came crashing down? Why? How could it happen? He had to keep the negative thoughts from entering his head. _You got it wrong, Marth. All the evidence you found just wasted your time and energy. You've accomplished nothing, and we die tomorrow because of it._

Marth pushed the thoughts away. They couldn't do anything but discourage him. He wasn't going to take his fate lying down. He hurried down the stairs and waited for Samus in the lobby. After a few minutes, Samus hustled into the lobby, dressed back in her jeans and black short-sleeved shirt over a gray long-sleeved shirt.

"Ready?" Samus asked.

"Definitely. Let's go."

They both walked out the front doors and headed straight for the pond.

"Let's run as fast as we can," Marth said. "It'd be quicker. I want to do this as quickly as possible."

"As fast as I can?" Samus asked. "I'd leave you behind in the dust."

"I know. Wait for me there."

They both took off. Samus with her Chozo blood was a human blur, and she disappeared from sight in seconds. Marth concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other and keeping his energy up to distract the negative thoughts from entering his mind again.

A few minutes later, Samus came running back to meet him again. She seem tired and exasperated.

"What did you find?"

"The tracks aren't there anymore," she said. "Whoever left them was smart enough to come back and clean it up after we captured Bowser."

Marth glared at Samus. "You're not serious."

"I'm serious."

"Are you sure it's not just the darkness?"

"Marth, I'm pretty sure the tracks are gone."

Marth stamped his foot on the ground and walked away a few paces. He stopped and let the evening breeze calm him. Eventually, his angry panting turned into gentle breathing once more.

"I'm sorry, Samus," he said. "I just got...angry." He turned to look at her. "We were so close, Samus. So close to apprehending Mastermind. So close to ending it all and going back to how things were. And I know you're going to hate this, but I can't help but feel responsible for it."

"I do hate it," Samus said. "We found evidence. We can still use that evidence. And you've done a lot. More than you think. And it's just like you told Bowser: We've always succeeded in everything we've done. Good always wins. Mastermind's not going to just kill us and move on. He'll be stopped."

Marth nodded. "Thanks, Samus. You know, you're a really nice friend to have around." Neither of them knew what to say after that. "Well, let's get going. We don't have a lot of time."

Samus joined him walking back to the academy. Marth accepted his upcoming fate with an iron disposition and solid resolve.


	18. Chapter 18: The Missing Ones

The plan? There was no plan.

Marth and Samus were tired and had run out of ideas. They were both bloody and beaten, and their minds had been completely exhausted from making plans and trying to figure out an enigma so massive it threatened the lives of twenty-three people.

"I won't give up," Marth said as they walked back, "not yet. But I'm not sure there's much else we can do. I think we may just have to accept our fate, and if a giant dragon appears and tries to kill us all, we fight it. If an army of undead soldiers comes up, we fight it. Whatever happens, we survive." He sighed as the academy came in sight. It brought new pangs of sadness, thinking of it. The Super Smash Bros. Academy was a place of absolute luxury. Fighters were treated like kings and queens, and it was much like a second home. Now it was overrun by hopelessness, and Mastermind was going to destroy it. A knot formed in Marth's stomach.

"You should get some rest," Samus said. Marth barely heard it. He seemed lost deep in his own little world. "Marth?"

Marth nodded as if something had been confirmed, then stopped on the top step leading to the academy and looked at Samus. "Mastermind's not going to kill all of us. I want one of us to survive." Samus gave Marth a confused look. "How's this for a plan: One of us stays and tries to fight whatever Mastermind throws at us, and the other uses the Teleporter and stays in another dimension for awhile. Then he or she can come back and see if whatever befalls the academy can be reversed."

Samus looked at Marth like he was crazy. "That's...." She sighed, and her shoulders slumped a little. "That's the best plan we've got. Why don't you be the one to leave, Marth? You've done enough already, and you need to rest."

He considered it. He was in no condition to fight. And Samus was right; maybe he did have the right to live. But he didn't like the thought of Samus being killed from an almost sure demise. And besides, she had the better skills at espionage and hand-to-hand combat. Even so, Marth couldn't get past imagining her eyes closing as she was killed, her body going limp....

"No. You go." Samus had no response. She just stared at Marth blankly. Marth chose his next words with care. "I can't even think of you getting killed. It actually hasn't been that long, but it seems like it's been forever with you. You're a friend that appeared where I never looked before." He stared at her intently. "I...." He couldn't finish the sentence. He looked away quickly. "It's better me than you. Besides, in terms of fighting, you'd be the better pick to suddenly reappear."

Neither of them said anything for awhile. They both thought about what Marth had said. Marth turned and walked back inside. Samus followed him in silently.

"I'm going up to bed," Marth said. "I'll see you tomorrow. We'll see how things go."

Before he could go back up, the Meeting Signal went off again. Marth turned in the opposite direction of the stairs and headed into the Meeting Room with Samus. They were the first ones there. Everybody else eventually wandered in and stood before Master Hand.

"Let's get straight to the point," Master Hand said. "Tomorrow is the end of the tournament. It's a three-way battle between Mewtwo, Donkey Kong, and Kirby. The fight will take place on Final Destination at ten o' clock sharp, so be there or you'll miss it. We'll then hold the official ceremony and declare the winner. A party will follow where there will be food and festivities. However, afterwards, we are all going on a wide search for the missing ones: Roy, Link, and Zelda. It will start the day after tomorrow. We will search the building, around the building, and all across the Linking Dimension. I expect cooperation from all of you. This will be a long and difficult task, but one that will be faster and easier if all of us work together. We do not have absolute proof that the three were kidnapped, but it is extremely likely, and if that is so, then the perpetrator likely stands in this room."

Marth looked around for signs of guilt or sinister glee. He either couldn't see their faces, or they didn't show anything negative. (Except Bowser, who glared at him with a vengeance.) He wasn't the only one looking around, of course; almost everybody else was eyeing one another with fear or suspicion.

"If you are the perpetrator, please step forward now. It would make it easier for everyone, including you, because you _will_ be found eventually. If you step forward now, your punishment will not be as great as when we find you ourselves." Not a single person stepped forward. Everybody knew that tactic wouldn't have worked, of course, but it was worth a shot, Marth decided. "Alright. If you will not step forward, then that is all. More details will come after the tournament is over. Meeting adjourned."

Marth followed the crowd out. It would have been so much easier if Mastermind had just stepped forward and confessed everything, but nobody expected him or her to. He pulled Samus aside as the others filed out.

"I know it's probably a bit late now," he said, "but at least we know something else about Mastermind."

"What?"

"He really is a greedy, completely sinister sociopath."

"I thought we knew that from before."

"Somebody could have done it out of fear. Maybe they did something they weren't supposed to and only kidnapped the three because they found out. They would have snapped under that pressure back there and confessed everything. I know it. We're dealing with a complete monster."

Samus considered it. "Bowser's out, so that really leaves only Ganondorf, Donkey Kong, and Mewtwo. We should keep an eye on them."

Marth nodded and headed for the stairs. "Good luck, Samus. I really am going to bed this time."

"Good night, Marth."

He went up the stairs, entered his room, and plopped onto his bed. His mind wouldn't want to sleep, he could tell, but his body enjoyed the warmth and rest. He had to really use his willpower to kick himself out of bed and actually brush his teeth before plopping onto the bed again without even taking his cape off.

--

It was the middle of the night. Marth, fully dressed and ready for battle, stood on a grassy hill outside the academy. _Not much time left_, he thought to himself repeatedly. _Not much time left...._

A breeze behind him carried the scent of an intruder, and he spun around, unsheathing his sword and swinging it at a shadowy enemy. He couldn't tell who it was, but it was large and obviously powerful. It leapt at him before he could swing again and grabbed him by the throat. His vision dulled, and he couldn't breathe. The next thing he knew, he was in an underground cave. The enemy sneered at him. He tried to attack him again but found that his hands were bound. He looked around him and saw his friends, all there, within touching distance if only he could free himself....

The vividness of the dream woke Marth up. He looked out his window. The sun had started to come above the horizon, sending rays of sunshine through his room. He wished he could have stayed and enjoyed it, but he knew today wasn't a day of peaceful rest; it was a day of blood. It was a day of either darkness or glory. The dream shook him. A pang of sadness, this one even greater than the last, almost brought tears to his eyes. _I would love to see my friends again before I die,_ he thought. They were so close in the dream. It seemed so real, he almost wished he hadn't woken up.

The dream also gave him courage. What he was doing, he did for his friends. He got himself all ready (not bothering to make his bed as there were bigger things to tend to) and left his room. He was going to give looking for his friends one last shot, not even bothering to watch the final round of the tournament. If he found his friends, they'd tell him the whole story, and he could stop the crisis, anyway.

The entire building was extremely quiet. As far as he could tell, he was the only one up. He went down into the lobby, truly marveling at its elaborate beauty for the first time in a long time. He looked to his left and saw Samus standing outside the front doors. He crossed the lobby, exited the doors, and stood beside Samus.

"Are we the only ones up?" he asked.

She shrugged. "I didn't really sleep that well. I guess you didn't, either."

"You guess correctly." He was about to tell her about his dream when he realized something. In the dream, the enemy--Mastermind, he presumed--had taken him to where his friends were. Although he didn't recognize where he was and didn't believe that it was actually where his friends were, it brought a new concept to his mind. "We've been checking in and around the building for them," he said. Samus knew who "they" were, so he didn't need to explain. "Have we checked underground?"

Samus looked at him with a puzzled expression. "How do we get underground?"

"Anywhere. A cave outside. A secret entrance on the bottom floor. Anything. Think about it. Donkey Kong, Ganondorf, and Mewtwo are the only three left, right?" Samus nodded, not sure of what he was getting at. "I think we all know Donkey Kong just grabs 'em and runs and likes to climb on tall structures, and the tallest structure around here is the academy itself, which we've checked thoroughly. So if he just runs, he's likely to find a cave or something somewhere, although I think trees suit him better. Ganondorf is more suited to dark, creepy places full of eight hundred different traps and enemies to lure his enemies in. Plus, he's just plain evil, as I've heard. And Mewtwo's used to caves. Didn't he live in one before he came here? Cerulean Cave or something?"

Samus had been nodding almost the entire time. "It does begin to make sense...." She thought for a second more, then said, "Well, shall we look for them? I'd rather not run with my tail between my legs if I don't have to."

"And I couldn't stand another fight," Marth said.

Samus hurried back inside, said a "just a second" over her shoulder, and hurried into the Recovery Room. Marth knew what she was getting at. A few moments later, she returned with the Comms in her hands. Marth took his old one, number eight, and grinned at her.

"What say we make one last stand?" Samus said.

"I'm with you," Marth replied. "You check the bottom floor inside the building for anything. I'll check the outside. And be careful, alright?"

"I think I'd be careful even if you didn't tell me," Samus said half-sarcastically. "Well, be careful yourself."

They parted ways. Butterflies danced in Marth's stomach again. He dashed off as fast as he could into the trees. The rest last night and his last feeling of hope spurred him on. And for a moment, he knew everything was going to be alright.

--

It was only fifteen minutes later when the Comm vibrated again. Marth snatched it excitedly. The news had come. He looked at the rising sun and thought it portrayed a message. Night doesn't last forever. Eventually, the sun rises and banishes the darkness. _I'd better start writing down these philosophies,_ he thought. He pressed the number 2 button. "Didn't take you long, did it?" he said.

"No, it didn't," Samus's voice confirmed. "You were absolutely right, Marth. There's a large cave underneath the whole building. There's a loose tile on the bottom floor. Go to the bottom floor, Marth, and I'll walk you through it."

Marth ran back to the academy as fast as he could. He almost tripped in his haste. He almost blew straight through the glass doors and would have if he hadn't pulled just in time. He hurried down the stairs leading to the bottom floor--almost tripped again there--and stood in front of a sea of black tiles.

"I'm there--now what?"

"I'm already heading through the caves. My eyesight's a lot better than yours, so you'll have some trouble. See the tile I pulled out?"

Marth looked up and saw a square hole with a tile resting beside it. "Yeah. I take it I head down?"

"Yes. And I would assume there are entrances from outside the building, too, but you don't have the time to look for them."

Marth trotted to the hole and looked down. It was pitch black. "Shouldn't I bring a torch or something?"

"That would only alert the enemy, if indeed they're down here. You'll just have to feel your way through."

Marth took a deep breath, then hopped down the hole. After a few seconds, the ground hit his feet, and he fell over. The only light came from the square above. He was reluctant to leave it, but knew that he had to. "I'm in," he said. "The ground kind of greets you sooner than you think, huh?"

"Just keep feeling your way through. And remember, there's a fork eventually that goes left and right. I've taken the one on the right."

Marth started forward into the black. The silence was so overwhelming, it hurt his ears. He unsheathed his sword just in case he needed it. The caves seemed large and threatening to him. He felt around for a wall and eventually came into contact with the left one. It was extremely cold down where the sun didn't reach. _All the more reason why bringing a torch would have been a good decision,_ Marth decided. He continued feeling his way along the wall, hoping he didn't encounter any snakes or rats or Masterminds. The thought gave him chills to add to the ones already caused from cold.

"Oh my gosh," Samus said slowly after awhile. "There they are."

"Really?" Marth shouted. He straightened up and whacked his head on the ceiling. Both the floor and the ceiling weren't being nice to him today.

"Look for a fire, Marth. They're...well, it looks like I've got some company," Samus said. Marth could hear the edge in her voice and knew she had just encountered Mastermind. "It's--"

The Comm link went dead. "Samus?" Marth tried. There was no response. The words "line lost" appeared on a glowing green screen on his Comm. "Samus!?!" he shouted. He put his Comm back onto his belt and went faster. Nothing good had happened. He had to reach her before it was too late. He was no longer afraid of snakes or rats or even Masterminds. He just wanted to reach Samus.

Eventually, the left wall disappeared, and Marth fell onto his stomach. He had reached the fork. It had taken him longer than he thought. Samus would have reached it much sooner due to her increased speed and vision. She could see a little bit in the pitch blackness. Marth wished he had that ability.

"Okay, take the right side," Marth muttered to himself, trying to keep his panic from rising any further. He wandered forward, hands outstretched. If anybody could see him, he would look like an idiot. He tried to feel a wall. He bumped right into one. When he felt around it, he realized it was the middle of the fork. He went through the right side and continued going as fast as he could without injuring himself.

About five minutes later, Marth's heart started beating faster. There was light. Red light. Light from fire. He had reached his goal after all that time. He inched closer, trying not to give himself away. There was turn, and Marth pressed himself up against the wall. He took several deep breaths, trying to steady himself, then peeked around the corner.

Roy, Link, and Zelda were there, bound and gagged to sturdy structures like stalagmites. Samus was among them, also bound and gagged. She had taken a beating from Mastermind, as there were new cuts and injuries. Mastermind himself, however, was nowhere to be seen. Marth whipped around the corner, eyes wide.

"Guys!" he shouted. "Are you all okay!?!"

As glad as he was to see them, he could tell they were happier to see him. All that time, tied up underground in the dark and cold, not even able to converse with one another, not able to even reassure them everything would be alright...it was monstrous. Marth started freeing them one by one, asking them if they were alright.

"How's it going?" Roy asked Marth, trying to smile but having a coughing fit instead.

"Why are you worried about me?" Marth asked him. "How long have you guys been down here?"

"Well, our newest buddy's been here only a few minutes," Roy said, inclining his head toward Samus. "I've been down here...I don't know how long. You can't exactly tell day and night here. You could only tell it was evening if he'd bring dinner."

Marth freed the rest of them. It was almost like a dream. It had felt like his friends had disappeared, and to have them back was...moving.

Finally, Marth came to Samus.

"It was Ganondorf," Samus said the moment he'd removed her gag. "Him, all along. Mastermind. He did this."

Marth looked up slowly, thinking to himself. He didn't totally understand his motives, but finally most of the puzzle had been completed. And more than that, he was certain Ganondorf would be stopped. Hope sprung from a fountain formerly blocked up, and now the flow couldn't stop. _Another poem,_ he thought.

"Are you going to untie the rest of me or what?"

Marth freed her and stood up along with his friends. He looked at each of them. They had minor injuries, especially Roy.

"Let's get to talking," Marth said. "How did you all get here? Did you learn Ganondorf's plan? Tell me everything I need to know."

"Sorry if you thought I was moping that day," Roy said. "Of course, now, I've kinda got bigger issues to deal with. But that night, I couldn't sleep, so I went to the library to kill some time. I saw Ganondorf, who I couldn't tell was him at the time, until he jumped. When I woke up, I was here."

"Zelda and I made it to the fountain," Link said. "Ganondorf attacked me by surprise. I recovered from the blow and continued to fight him, but then he threatened to kill Zelda when he got her when she wasn't looking. Then he knocked me unconscious, and I woke up here with Roy at my left and Zelda at my right."

Samus shared her story next. "With my enhanced vision, I noticed that one of the tiles on the bottom floor didn't look right when I looked at them all carefully, so I went through the caves and found the three of them here plus Ganondorf. We fought, he beat me. As simple as that."

"What about his plan?" Marth asked. He looked at all of them. "Ganondorf's plan. Did he ever reveal it to you?"

There was silence again. Nobody said anything. Finally, Zelda spoke up. "Before he left, he said he was 'Off to Crazy Hand's work' and that the tournament finale would be 'quite a blast.' I don't know what he meant by that."

Marth thought back, back to when he was in the library. Right before Peach had asked him to meet with Samus and when he had learned that Link and Zelda were missing. He was reading a book about the Linking Dimension. A particular part came to his mind:

_We both created our own battling arenas. It was long, hard work. We put all our energy into creating balls of energy that would sustain the arenas, keep them afloat, and protect them from harm. My creation was called Final Destination, and, appropriately, I made it the last arena the fighters would have to go through if they went through the series of matches against well-designed copies of other fighters we created. Crazy Hand's was Battlefield and differed from mine slightly in that it had more platforms. We had thought of the idea of connecting them or sticking them next to each other, but as we are both radically different in personalities and design, so were the arenas. They can't come near each other without exploding. That's why Battlefield and Final Destination are so far apart._

"I know his plan," Marth said. Everybody immediately turned their attention to him. "I remember reading it from a book: Master Hand created Final Destination, and Crazy Hand created Battlefield. If they come near each other, they explode. And the tournament finale takes place on Final Destination." He studied each of their faces. "He's going to send Battlefield into Final Destination and kill all the people there in one blow."

"So that's it, then," Samus muttered to herself.

"What time is it now?" Link asked.

Samus looked at a device on her left wrist. "Ten-twelve."

All of their faces paled. Marth snapped out of it and looked at Roy. "Where's the closest exit out of here?"

"Ganondorf always went that way when he went out," Roy said, pointing to a tunnel opposite the one Marth had come from.

"Then let's move!" Marth shouted.

Without wasting a second, the five heroes dashed towards the exit. Marth grabbed a torch from the nearby fire and held it in front of him to light his way. If they made it quick enough, lives would be spared. If they didn't, all hope was lost.


	19. Chapter 19: Final Destination

Master Hand was brilliant.

He had created the Teleporter. He had created a large "academy" for many people to stay and train at. He had worked alongside his "brother," Crazy Hand, and made technological miracles. There was no question that he was unfathomably smart.

But for once, Marth thought he had made an extremely stupid decision. _Invite a villain who likes to take over the world,_ Marth thought furiously as he ran. _Great idea. Now we all get to suffer panic attacks as we realize we have minutes left to live._

He knew that the tunnel they were fleeing through was really not all that long, but it felt too long to him. It angered him that he couldn't see very far through the darkness, and an image of Ganondorf's evil, sneering face kept appearing in his mind and talking to him. _"You have failed. I have won. It is not that you are too weak, it is that I am too strong. You fought well, young hero, but perhaps now you will understand that the powers of darkness overcome the powers of light."_

"Sounds like just the thing he would say...." Marth muttered.

"Are you alright, Marth?" Samus's voice asked.

Marth snapped out of his haze and looked at Samus. He held her gaze for too long and ran full steam into a wall. He felt the wind get knocked out of him and landed on the ground with a thud. The torch rolled out of his hand, and Link hastened to catch it again. Samus extended her hand and helped him back up. He rubbed his head, unsteady on his feet.

"Sorry," he mumbled. "What do you mean, 'am I okay'?"

"You've been muttering to yourself nonstop," she explained. "I know we're going through a tough situation, but...relax." A small smile crept onto her face. "As hopeless as this looks...I know it's going to be okay. And I know that sounds melodramatic, but it's the truth. We're going to be okay."

Marth stopped rubbing his head. "You're right. In everything we've done, we've won, right? I was being stupid. Sorry."

For a moment, nobody said or did anything, despite the urgency of the situation. Samus was about to break the silence when she stopped, adopted a curious expression, and let her gaze drift to the cave walls. Her jaw clenched slightly.

"What is it?" Roy asked.

"I hear something," she said slowly. "Footsteps."

"Help?" Link asked hopefully.

"I would doubt it," Samus replied bitterly. "Help would be calling for us. Whatever this is probably isn't friendly."

Link, who was now in possession of the torch, held it in front of him to illuminate as much as he could. Marth readied his sword and stepped forward slowly.

"Wish I still had my sword," Roy muttered, adopting a fighting stance.

There was silence for a few seconds. For a moment, Marth thought Samus had heard wrong. But then he heard it, too; a distant sound of something flat landing repeatedly on a rock, like someone was beating a shirt against a cave floor. It wasn't the sound of boots or of ordinary shoes, and for a moment, Marth thought it was some wild beast Master Hand hadn't warned anybody about. It didn't sound human....

"What's that?" Link asked, holding the torch even further.

What looked like glowing purple wires appeared around the corner. It was still a good distance away from them, but it was closing that distance rapidly. The wires were strung together to form the shape of a human, and a crude red heart was beating inside of it....

"Wire Frames!" Marth shouted. He dove forward, sword held in front of him. The others followed, preparing to fight with whatever they had. A ball of fire zoomed over Marth's shoulder and exploded in front of the Wire Frame, igniting it briefly. Marth turned in mid-run and swiped the Wire Frame--which, this close to him, appeared to be female--knocking it backward into the cave wall. It stood back up as if nothing had happened and continued its assault.

"Definitely not an ordinary Wire Frame," Link said, swinging his torch at it. It knocked the torch out of his hands and planted a kick in his stomach, which sent him flying back with more force than usual. The torch clattered to the ground, plunging much of the cave into darkness.

Marth felt a whoosh of wind beside him and knew that Samus had sprung into action. He heard her foot collide somewhere on the Wire Frame and watched the Wire Frame go soaring back again. It got up like the previous time, but a little more unsteadily.

"Are they from Cruel Melee?" Marth asked, fearing the answer.

"I don't think so," Samus said, panting. "They seem...normalized. There's no other word for it."

Marth prepared to attack the Female Wire Frame again but stopped when he heard another noise behind him. He turned and look at the source of the noise and felt his stomach drop. Three more Wire Frames were rushing in their direction from the way they had just come from.

"We can't fight them all!" Samus yelled, flip kicking the female Wire Frame and dashing for the torch. "We don't have the time! We'll just have to fight them as we go!"

The five heroes burst past the Wire Frame, who hadn't gotten back up, and didn't look back at the three chasing them. Wire Frames weren't necessarily known for their speed, so perhaps they would just have a chance. Nonetheless, Marth picked up his pace.

Another three Wire Frames appeared from the front. Marth met one head on, ducking his head and thrusting his sword forward. He felt the blade penetrate through the Wire Frame's hollow body and come out the back. He pulled it out, spun around, and swung the sword at the neck of the one Link was fighting. It would have decapitated any normal enemy, but Wire Frames simply weren't normal. It was knocked over, allowing Link to escape easily.

"How far until we get out of this place!?!" Roy shouted.

"It probably shouldn't be far," she said, though it sounded more like she was just trying to convince of it.

One more Wire Frame appeared straight ahead, two more from a tunnel to their left, and another two from one on their right. Their situation was looking worse and worse.

"Hand me the torch!" Link yelled. Samus slowed down slightly, gave it to him hastily, and dispatched two of the Wire Frames in a couple of smooth, athletic moves. Marth swung his sword forward, knocking two more out of the way, and Link set the core of the last one on fire by stabbing it with his torch. Marth chanced a glance behind him and saw that the three Wire Frames from behind were not only catching up slowly, but two more had joined them. _Are we even going to make it out of the caves?_ he wondered with a jolt of panic.

The panic left suddenly. Up ahead, there was light. Not light from fire, but sunlight. Feeling relieved and strangely refreshed, he put on another burst of speed.

And then they were out. Roy and Zelda yelped in pain as the sunlight burned their eyes. It had been so long since they had seen daylight. Even Marth was squinting. He looked behind him, hoping to see the Wire Frames standing at the cave exit, looking at them angrily, longing for more violence...but the sunlight hadn't perturbed them at all. They were still chasing them, even out of the cave.

"They're still there!" he yelled. "Which way do we go from here!?!"

They were somewhere in the woods surrounding the academy. He never ventured into the woods much, so he hadn't the faintest clue where exactly he was or which direction to go in. Six Wire Frames poured out of the cave exit, and Marth saw even more far behind them.

"We need to block them off!" he shouted. He entered combat with two of them. He stabbed one through the chest but couldn't block the other from giving him a rough kick to the back, knocking him over. That Wire Frame was soon being assaulted by Roy, who had found a very formidable looking stick and was making good use of it.

"Hold this," Link panted, handing Zelda the torch. She took it in her gloved hands, surprised at the flaming object suddenly thrust at her. To Marth's relief, she didn't drop it. Link picked up a large collection of big branches, carried them to the slope leading back down into the cave, and hurled them down. He held his hand out to Zelda, silently requesting the torch. She gave it back to him, looking relieved that she didn't have to hold onto it any longer, and Link pitched it into the pile of branches, setting them aflame. Once the Wire Frames outside with them had been taken care of, Roy added his own branch to the mix.

"Nice work, Link," Samus remarked, wiping her brow. "Let's get out of here before more trouble picks up."

"Where's 'out of here'?" Roy asked, looking around him. Marth silently agreed with him; everything looked the same.

"Can you see the academy way off over there?" she replied, pointing to an area over a hill.

"No," Marth said flatly.

"Well, that's where we're headed," she finished, ignoring Marth's response. She took off running, and the rest followed, trying desperately to keep up with her.

"I think I'd just like to say," Roy stated as matter-of-factly as he could while running at full steam, "that I hope Master Hand makes the intro to the final battle extra long. Used to bore me, but it may come in handy now."

Marth looked into the sky as if expecting to see a mass of purple hurtling towards the academy. To his relief, there was hardly anything in the sky, even a cloud.

As they dashed over the hill, a building in the distance came into view. Samus was already well ahead of them, not bothering to slow down. Marth couldn't understand how she could run that fast and not ram straight into a tree. It would be funny if not for the current circumstances.

After what seemed like an eternity, they arrived at the doors of the academy. Samus was waiting for them, not even appearing to be out of breath. In comparison, Marth and Roy were panting heavily, and Link was carrying Zelda in his arms. He set her down and bent over, supporting his weight by putting his hands on his knees.

"All we have to do," Samus said, "is teleport to Final Destination, tell everyone to evacuate, and let Master Hand deal with Ganondorf," she said. "If we're lucky, it'll go easily and smoothly."

They all entered the academy and ran for the basement. As far as they could tell, they were the only ones in the building. It was eerily quiet. Almost calming. What Marth would have given to sit down in one of the comfy chairs provided at the outskirts of the lobby, tilt his head back, and relax. It was a tempting thought, and the knowledge that he would be doing it soon enough was comforting.

They arrived at the bottom of the basement stairway and stopped.

"Uh-oh," Link said, staring at the sight before them.

There was a Male Wire Frame. A huge one. The top of its head scraped the ceiling. It leered down at them all. And, inconveniently enough, it had stationed itself right in front of the Teleporter.

There was silence. Then Roy broke the silence with two words that described the situation perfectly:

"This sucks."

The five of them stepped off the stairway, staring cautiously at the red Super Smash Bros. logo that made up its face. It wasn't moving. It had been put there by Ganondorf to guard the Teleporter.

"We're going to have to fight it," Samus muttered. Even she looked frightened of the hulking fiend.

"Zelda, you attack it from the back," Marth instructed. His old days of giving troops orders and leading them to victory had returned. "Link and Roy, you protect her."

"With what?" Roy asked, jaw still dropped at the sight of the Wire Frame.

"With whatever you can find. Just don't let it touch her. Samus, you attack it directly with me. Use your speed and athleticism to your advantage."

She gave a small nod and walked cautiously towards the Wire Frame. At first, it remained motionless. But when she got even closer, it lifted its foot and aimed a kick at her, a foot as large as Samus herself. She avoided it with a jump to the side, then kicked off a nearby wall and returned the favor with a kick of her own. Another ball of fire roared past Marth and exploded on the Wire Frame's torso. The swordsman jumped and prepared to stab it through the chest, but a large hand smacked him back. It hadn't been very powerful or very quick, but it still knocked the wind out of him, and he still got the gist that it was only a fraction of the Wire Frame's power.

_We are seriously wasting our time here,_ Marth thought. He gritted his teeth angrily. They were so close to ending all the madness, all the mayhem; why did this great ugly thing have to get in the way? He got back up and approached it more warily, sword in front of him. Samus was already leaping around it, not even touching the floor, and aiming all sorts of attacks at it. However, Marth could see that it could easily have been compared to a fly bothering a man. It wasn't doing a whole lot, if anything. Now was the time to act, now that it was distracted.

Dodging another ball of Din's Fire, Marth stabbed the Wire Frame in the knee, hoping to bring it down. It jerked its head down toward him; it had clearly felt it, but Marth didn't think he did much damage. Before the giant could retaliate, he pulled his sword out and gave another great swing at the side of its electronic-looking thigh. It raised its foot above Marth, now angered. He leapt out of the way just as it came crashing down on the spot he had just stood on. He got back to his feet quickly and renewed his assault on the right leg, hoping to weaken the beast.

He let his guard down for too long. He had been concentrating on the lower part of the Wire Frame's body and not the top; he didn't see it reaching down to pick him up. It wasn't until giant fingers clenched around him and he dropped his sword in shock that he realized his mistake. The fingers were crushing the lower half of his body. He couldn't even move his legs to try and squirm his way out. He looked to his right and saw that Samus had been caught similarly. Another fireball blasted into the Wire Frame's feature-less face, but it seemed useless. The Wire Frame's fingers began to tighten. He was being squished.

"Do something!" Marth choked out. He was suffocating. He pounded at the giant's hand, trying to force it to let him go. If only he hadn't dropped his sword....

The sound of something extremely heavy hitting another something extremely heavy filled the room, and the Wire Frame dropped both its prisoners. For once, it looked like it was really in pain. A white, dirty, patched-up object landed on the floor in front of Marth. Even stranger, it was staring at him...it was Sandbag. What was Sandbag doing here?

And what was Roy doing behind the giant Wire Frame, clutching a Home Run Bat and wearing a triumphant grin on his face?

The Wire Frame turned on Roy, furious, and lifted a foot to stomp him. Roy dodged it, jumped over the foot, and helped Sandbag upright. With another almighty swing, Sandbag hit the Wire Frame square in the face. Seizing his chance, Marth rushed forward and grabbed his sword. He jumped from its bent knee and then to its torso. He raised his sword high over his head, and, shouting a war cry, swung it downwards.

Marth's sword had cut a path straight through the surprisingly sturdy exterior and found its way right into the center of its heart. The Wire Frame froze, hands lifted halfway towards Marth as if to grab him. The hands drooped down slowly back to its sides, and it fell backwards. Marth pulled his sword out of it and jumped off of it, shaking head to toe.

"Is it dead?" Zelda asked nervously.

Marth examined it. Its heart was still beating, but slowly and irregularly. "No. But it won't wake up for some time." He looked at the Teleporter doors. Fortunately, only an arm blocked the way, and that was easily cleared by stepping over it. "Let's get inside the Teleporter. We can deal with this thing later."

He pushed a button on a panel beside the Teleporter, and the doors slid open. The five clambered inside, careful not to get too close to the Wire Frame.

"Thanks, Roy," Marth said after pressing a few more buttons. "What exactly happened? Where'd you go?"

"Home Run Stadium," Roy answered, proud of his success. "I knew what you were doing wouldn't work, so I started up a Home Run Contest but never actually played. I just...took the bat and Sandbag for a stroll."

The doors opened again. Before them were the floating stands, occupied by the fighters. Marth wasted no time. He ran forward and bellowed, as loud as he could, "Stop!!"


	20. Chapter 20: The Mind of Evil

Every head turned in their direction. At first, they were puzzled--some even looked annoyed--but when they noticed the dirty, bloody ones who had gone missing, they were surprised. Marth glared at Ganondorf, who glared back. How he wanted to teach that piece of trash a lesson...but things had to be explained first.

A mixture of surprised cries rang from the gaping audience.

"What the--!?"

"Link! What happened to you!?!"

"Zelda! Are you alright?"

"I don't believe it...."

Master Hand appeared from his spot around the arena, clearly wondering what the commotion was. Marth had no idea when he actually saw the five of them standing there, because he said nothing at first. But after a small wait, muttering in a low voice but still loud enough for them to hear over the din, "You have finally found the missing ones?" Marth nodded, still glaring at Ganondorf.

Master Hand hovered into the middle of the arena. The three fighters--Kirby, Mewtwo, and Donkey Kong--had paused and were craning their necks to see what was going on (although Kirby had no neck and Mewtwo merely glanced out of the corners of his eyes with his body still facing the other two). "Stop the match!!!" He turned to the three finalists. "Return to the lobby and then rejoin us in the audience with the rest."

They pressed some buttons on the devices on their wrists and were soon warped off Final Destination. A few moments later, the Teleporter reopened in the stands, and the three of them walked out.

"Roy, Link, and Zelda have rejoined us," Master Hand announced. He turned to Marth and Samus. "Care to fill us in?"

"We don't have a whole lot of time," Marth explained quickly. "I had a sudden idea this morning, and Samus and I looked for them in an underground cave. They were there. They'd been there for days."

"Courtesy of him!!" Roy shouted, pointing at Ganondorf. All heads turned in Ganondorf's direction. He ignored them and shifted his glare from Marth to Roy. "He's the one responsible for all of the kidnappings and whatever else bad has happened while we've been gone!"

Master Hand turned slowly to Ganondorf. "Do you admit this is true?"

Ganondorf remained silent. Marth didn't wait for an answer. "We need everybody to leave the entire academy! This place is going to be rubble in a few minutes! He's sent Battlefield on a collision course with Final Destination!"

Few people seemed to understand, but Master Hand understood plenty. "We leave. Everybody, take no time to pack anything unless it is absolutely necessary. You will return to your old dimensions. If time is too short, we will all head to the Mushroom Kingdom. It is very regrettable, but necessary for survival. Unless we can stop this," he added, turning again to Ganondorf. "Tell us how this can be stopped."

"Very simple," Ganondorf replied, now glaring at Marth again. "I choose to stop it, and it stops."

"Then stop it," Master Hand commanded. Ganondorf didn't move. "Now."

"Do you think you can threaten me, great hand?" Ganondorf retorted, finally taking his eyes off of Marth. "Do you think you can defeat me? I have power even you know nothing of. I am not changing anything. And they--" Ganondorf tilted his head at the mass of people congregated near the Teleporter-- "aren't going anywhere."

"What, you want to take us all at once?" Falco snapped, stepping forward. "You really are insane, aren't you?"

"Insane?" Ganondorf responded. "No. And I'm not going to take you on all at once. I'd rather...sit back and enjoy the show."

He stood up and approached the invisible barrier protecting the stands. His hands glowed with dark power, and he reached through it as if it wasn't even there. He kicked off from the ground, using dark magic to propel himself forward, until he finally reached Final Destination. He turned to the people watching in the stands.

"Yes, will you come and fight or will you flee? Either way, as I see it, you die. Pick whichever death you prefer. It matters not to me."

"You want a fight?" Marth called. "Fine. Let me over there, and I'll show you what I've been waiting to give you for a long time."

Ganondorf seemed to consider it. Then, he raised his hand, and dark energy glowed from it, creating an orb of black. It began rotating, creating a vortex, almost like a vaccuum. Marth was lifted off his feet and started drifting towards the barrier. After he had gotten over the initial shock, he steeled himself to go through the barrier.

Dark magic had covered him and was now making him glow with a black aura. He slipped through the barrier just as Ganondorf had--as if it wasn't even there--and soon came to a stop, floating on the other side of the arena. The dark magic was released, and he dropped onto his feet.

"I've always enjoyed a little one-on-one battle," Ganondorf said, smirking. "First that pest, Link, and now a new thorn in my flesh. As a matter of fact, I can't even remember your name. How am I supposed to tell the people I will rule very shortly about the blue-haired fool who challenged the King of Evil?"

"Then perhaps I should enlighten you," Marth said, holding his sword outstretched in front of him in a challenging manner. "Marth, Prince of Altea. Pleased to make your acquaintance."

"They are all so very foolish," Ganondorf muttered, his smirk growing wider. "Do not think you can run," Ganondorf announced loudly to the crowd in the stands, who had not left in favor of seeing what would happen next. "I think you will find that there will be some enemies of yours there to greet you, and they shall ensure that not a one of you makes it to safety."

Marth looked at Samus, Roy, Link, and Zelda. All of them were staring at him with wide eyes.

"You help everybody else with the Wire Frames," he called to them. "Watch over them. Alright?"

Samus nodded. She gave one last look at Marth, then swept to the front of the crowd and started giving orders. Link reluctantly followed her and aided her in helping the escaping fighters. Roy and Zelda remained behind.

"You _will_ be okay, right, Marth?" he asked.

No, he wouldn't. He knew he was going to his death and that battling Ganondorf may be meaningless after all. But he was going to make sure that evil like him never escaped into the world again, and he didn't want his last memory of Roy to be of a scared and worried boy. "Yes," he answered, forcing the word out. "But it doesn't matter. Make sure everybody gets out okay, and it won't matter what happened to me. Just so long as _he_--" Marth glanced at Ganondorf-- "doesn't get away. Now go. Help your friends."

Roy looked like he wanted to say something else, but nodded like Samus had and headed for the Teleporter, which was mostly clear from the fighters. Zelda and Mewtwo remained, one watching the scene with a look of terror in her eyes and the other staring hard at the two of them as if trying to think of a solution.

"I have always enjoyed one-on-one," Ganondorf repeated, "so let's make sure that we are not interrupted."

At an unspoken command, a giant bubble appeared around the arena. Marth couldn't see out of it very well; everything was oddly distorted and twisted, like a reflection in a pool of water. He knew the barrier would prevent anybody from entering or leaving, as if anybody could have made it over to the floating arena anyway.

"It's just us, kid," Ganondorf said, his arms crossed. "Just the two of us. You'll be receiving no help on this one."

"How did you do it all?" Marth asked. "The kidnappings, the planning...how'd you do it?"

"As much as I'd love to start fighting," Ganondorf said, "I can't resist spilling the beans to someone. Just too tempting.

"I didn't much appreciate being called into an entirely new dimension. I escaped from the prison that stupid girl, Zelda, sealed me into a little earlier than I expected, but as such, I was weak. I was almost nothing. My power was gone. I was exhausted, barely able to even survive. I knew I couldn't attempt anything...big...for a long time. Several years, at least. But then that invitation to the Super Smash Bros. arrived, and my curiosity got the better of me. What was I to do, anyway, barely clinging on to life? So I accepted the invitation.

"At first, I hated every moment of it. I was in the midst of pests. I was right in the middle of a group of clumsy, unskilled heroes who had somehow managed to save their own dimensions from danger of some sort. And then imagine my surprise to learn that...that _boy_ and Zelda were also there. I was furious. Weak and without power, thrown into a den of beasts ready to slaughter me, my situation looked hopeless.

"But I discovered something shortly after arriving in this dimension. My power was returning. I was rejuvenated. Something about this place, its very air, seemed to give me strength. I realized that at the current rate my power was returning to me, I might be able to attempt something, well..._big_. Like I said before. And how I wanted revenge on those two children for making a fool out of me and ruining every plan I had laid out...." His face had turned into an expression of complete hatred.

"But the question was _how_. I knew that I couldn't simply barge into their rooms and kill them. Surrounded by so many other little friends to bail them out, it would be like kissing death. So I kept my word. I had promised I would never do anything bad or evil. I had to. There was no alternative. It would have been quite easy to kill them in a matter of seconds. I almost couldn't resist temptation a few times...but it's lucky for me that I did. I didn't have a plan, so I started developing one. For them to be that close but not to seize the opportunity in front of me would be stupid. So for awhile, I spent my time in the library. This didn't seem too out of place, as I preferred solitude anyway. But it wasn't until recently that I stumbled upon the book that gave me the whole idea."

Marth wanted to call him a monster. He wanted to tell him how absolutely horrible and monstrous he was, talking about murdering a couple of innocent people like he was doing it over tea. But the story enthralled him, and though he knew he was probably wasting his time which he could be spending to kill Ganondorf, he decided to stay his sword hand for a just a few more minutes.

"I had been spending an awful lot of time in the library--the entire time I've been here, in fact--and never found anything. I was discouraged when I picked up that book, and I flipped through the pages expecting to see nothing. But then some secrets were revealed to me, such as the vulnerability of the floating heap of metal we're standing on now." Ganondorf tapped the arena with his foot twice to emphasize his point. "All these secrets, but I didn't know what to make of them. Like a puzzle where you have all the pieces, but you don't know where to start. But eventually...I started with the first piece.

"Battlefield could be sent into Final Destination to make it explode. The balls of energy keeping these arenas afloat are based on a sort of magical energy. I tapped into it with my own energy and commanded Battlefield to change its course and to lock onto Final Destination. I knew this from before, but what good was it? Hope that Link and Zelda were battling on this arena? And again, I waited. I've waited a long time for this, you see, and I will not see it fail.

"A few weeks later, Master Hand announced the Ultimate Tournament. I did some digging and discovered that the last match was on Final Destination. It was all perfect. Too good to be true. Every hero, every person who could stop me, was gathered in one spot. I could kill them all at once, and then there would be _no one_ left to stop me!"

Marth could see the insane glint in his eyes. Only a lunatic could say something like that. "That is absolutely not true," he said, glaring at Ganondorf. "Someone else would come along, and you know it. You _would_ be stopped, regardless."

"With the Teleporter destroyed and me with more knowledge and power than I've ever had? Unlikely. But that's naturally too much for a mind like yours to understand. So, continuing my explanation before you interrupted--you did want to hear it, did you not?--all I had to do was wait. Wait until the last round. To make it seem less suspicious, I entered myself. I intentionally lost halfway through to that hairy brute, Donkey Kong, so that I wasn't on Final Destination myself when the time came. I would be too pressed for time, changing Battlefield and getting ready at the same time, and much harder to leave quietly. None of you noticed how I paused and let him hit me with several obvious moves? I could have beaten him in a second, but knew it would be foolish to do so. It was humiliating, but necessary."

"What about the stolen weapons?" Marth asked. "What were you intending to do with those?"

"Really? Nothing," Ganondorf replied, shrugging nonchalantly. "Nothing at the moment, anyway. If the whole place really was going to be buried in rubble, I supposed I had better take some treasures with me. Falco's weapons went first--they interested me the most. I could learn how they worked with technology so far beyond our own. I admit it was rather funny, watching the idiot fuming about his lost items," he added, smirking. The urge to lunge at him spiked, but he suppressed it enough to make it look like a small twitch. "The night I stole them didn't go as well as I had planned. I crept down the stairs when everybody else had gone to bed. I checked in the kitchen, but there was nobody there. I felt a little...cocky then. As secret as I had to be, I couldn't help but leave a mark. So I decided to sneak into the kitchen and steal something to eat. I got clumsy and knocked a pot off the counter. I didn't think much about it until _you_ came sticking your nose in."

"I never saw anyone there," Marth said slowly. "I checked thoroughly. I thought it was Kirby."

"Once again, you underestimate the powers of darkness," Ganondorf sighed. "I cloaked myself and hid away in a corner. Had you turned on the lights and looked a little closer, you might have noticed something out of place and discovered me." Ganondorf seemed to consider something for a moment. "If you had, you'd have been the first to mysteriously disappear. And then I likely would be far, far away, not even standing and having this conversation with you. But back to the subject at hand, which we seem to be constantly wandering off of, once you had left, I crept out of the kitchen and hurried toward the bird's room. He was sound asleep. I probably could have tipped his bed upside down and he wouldn't have felt a thing, lucky for me. Stealing his weapons was an easy matter.

"I was planning my next burglary over the days. At night, I would always sneak out into the library and try to learn more, see if I could refine my plan. And one night, I encountered a little trouble."

"The night you kidnapped Roy," Marth concluded.

"Kidnapping was never on my to-do list," Ganondorf muttered, scowling. "I was stealing as much as I could get away with. Other than that, it was an easy wait until the final battle. But your stupid little friend seemed to decide he wanted to take a nighttime stroll...through the library. At first, I thought it was _you_ again, pestering me yet again. I kept silent, hoping he wouldn't come up the stairs or notice anything out of place. Unfortunately, he _did_ come up the stairs, and he _did_ notice something out of place. He passed by the row I was hiding in and asked me what I was doing. He didn't seem to think it was me at first, but he became suspicious when I didn't say or do anything. It took him a few moments, but he finally worked it out, and that was when I attacked. I had the element of surprise on my side, so he went down quietly and easily. I bound and gagged him and immediately started looking for a place to hide him. It was...very hard. Very frustrating, knowing that your time and options were limited. Nowhere in the building would do, so I searched for a spot outside. After a long time--I don't know how long, but it felt like a couple of hours at least--I found what looked like a cave. I followed it through and discovered that it led under the building. There was even an exit into the academy itself. It was perfect. I could hide him safe and sound without worrying about him creating noises or alerting anybody, and I could reach him easily.

"It was really going downhill from there. The missing weapons were one thing; a missing person was another. People were really starting to worry, starting to get suspicious. Such as you, for starters. I decided to sneak into the library to be by myself and read up on some more history when I heard low voices. Curious, I crept over to the table you, Link, and Samus were sitting at. I cloaked myself once more and listened in. You put together a little search party, correct?" Marth didn't answer the question. "It doesn't matter. Now I was especially cautious. Not one, but _three_ annoying people onto my trail, and one of them my worst enemy, although you certainly are competing with him. I had to be even more careful and plan my next theft carefully."

Marth thought for a bit. "Samus's things?"

"I was also fascinated by her Power Suit. I could possibly use it to help further my goals, and just to make sure Samus was even worse off, I took her Zero Suit, too. That was harder. I had to wait until she left her room for a long time, snooping around just like you, before I went in and stole it. It's difficult, trying to carry something that large through the halls without being spotted. Luckily, nobody saw me, so I managed to carry it down to the basement and sneak it into the caves."

Marth made a mental note of the location. _If, by some miracle, I can survive this,_ he thought. _And stop the catastrophe._

"That same day, I learned that, after the third round, Link was heading off somewhere outside the academy. This worried me. Did he know of the cave? I knew I had to follow him and make sure he didn't do anything that might, well, cause some trouble. I then discovered that he was taking Zelda with him. I had no idea why, but I followed them anyway."

"He was just going on a walk with her," Marth stated flatly.

"I didn't know or care entirely what the reason was. I just had to tail them. They stopped near the pond and started talking to one another. I thought I was well hidden, but apparently not hidden enough. Zelda noticed something in the woods, and I had no choice but to leap out and attack Link. What would they think, seeing their worst enemy watching them from the shadows? I knocked Link down by surprise and started on Zelda, but the boy has more in him than I gave him for. He got back up and started attacking me, stubborn fool that he is. And as I remember seeing _you_, once again, traveling with them up to a certain point, I wondered if you'd be coming back. I had to end it quickly."

"So you pulled a cheap and dirty move and threatened to kill Zelda," Marth finished.

"Yes. It worked. He stopped attacking immediately. He didn't even move or try to block me when I knocked him unconscious. I bound and gagged them as well, and fortunately, Zelda didn't put up too much of a fuss, probably fearing for her beloved hero. He made a very stupid choice. He should have let her die and killed his worst enemy, then told everyone what had happened."

"I'm not even going to try to explain it to you," Marth muttered through his teeth. "That'd be too much for _you_ to understand."

"It matters not. They joined Roy underneath the academy, and I hustled back before anybody realized anything was up. On the way back to my room, I passed by you and realized what a pain you'd be. I needed to get rid of you. Making you disappear was going to be tough, though. You can't just burst out and attack; you need an opportunity. And that opportunity came when you decided to spend a little time in Multi-Man Melee.

"I have full control of the Wire Frames now. The cores keeping them together, keeping them alive, are connected to the core of energy in Battlefield. So all I needed to do was tap into it a bit early and tell the Wire Frames to obey me and me only. I watched you in the Multi-Man Melee room. After a bit of tinkering, I managed to disable your Home Bracelet and the blast lines, so you couldn't escape and you couldn't return peacefully. Then I toyed with the system a little more and turned the Wire Frames into their Cruel mode. I left you, certain you would die. But somehow, you escaped. I don't quite know how and I don't particularly care now, either. But I failed my chance then, and I was boiling.

"I decided to play it low for awhile. I had caused so many strange things to happen that it would be dangerous now to attempt something else. Awhile later, however, I received some truly joyous news; you had caught the criminal. So you thought, anyway. You thought you were all safe again. You honestly believed Bowser was smart enough to commit such crimes?" He sneered, staring Marth intently in the eyes. "But I was off the hook again, so I decided to continue my thefts. I stole Fox's weapons, as they were slightly different from Falco's. At that time, it was too late for you to discover who was really behind it all. I thought I had done it.

"The day came--today, in fact. Today was the day I was going to kill all of the people who could oppose me in one blow. I stayed down in the cave to set up Wire Frames as guards just in case an idiot such as yourself would ever find them at the last second. Nothing could go wrong. Nothing." Ganondorf's proud smirk had turned into a scowl of complete hatred. "In the middle of setting things up, your little friend Samus discovered us. I couldn't let her get away with the information or tell whoever was on the other end of that device--you, I assume--anything, so I fought her. And I won. My power has truly returned to me. She became a fourth prisoner, and I set off towards Battlefield. Nobody was even in the building. They'd all gotten seats early for the final battle. I altered the course of Battlefield, then went back down and joined the rest in the stands, pretending like I was just as interested to see the battle.

"And then you meddled one last time. You stopped the match, the four prisoners with you. That forced me to change my plan quite a bit. Your friends are now fighting a horde of Wire Frames, including that giant one you somehow found a way past, and you...you are fighting me. Are you happy now? You've heard the whole story. What are you going to do with this knowledge?" He paused. His smirk had returned. Marth honestly had no idea _what_ he was going to do; could Battlefield be stopped? Could Ganondorf be defeated? And could he even escape the arena he was on? The bubble-like barrier was as thick as it had been went it had started, and how was he supposed to make it back to the stands anyway?

"It doesn't matter anymore," Marth said. "So long as a creature as terrible as yourself is destroyed, never to cause trouble again, I'll be fine. You have no heart."

"What does one even need a heart for besides to pump blood?" Ganondorf asked. "Everybody seems to think love helps. It doesn't. Had love not gotten in the way of Link's decisions, I might be defeated, you'd be enjoying the tournament celebration like you should be, and everything would be back to normal."

"You're only proving how insane and twisted you are," Marth growled, his voice trembling with rage. "It doesn't even bother you? It doesn't bother you to watch others in pain? It doesn't bother you to watch things get destroyed and ruined?"

"Not a bit."

Marth had heard enough. Sword raised, he leapt at Ganondorf and took the first swing.


	21. Chapter 21: Last Battle

Watching from the stands to the side of the hovering arena were two figures. The first was a young woman with blonde hair and a terror-stricken expression. The second was a strange creature with a stern expression in contrast. Neither had broken the silence as they watched the two figures, dueling to their deaths with no certain way out.

"Is there a way out of this?" Zelda asked, eyes locked on Marth. "Just a minute ago, we were enjoying our time together. What happened to that?"

"What happened to it should be obvious," Mewtwo stated flatly in his deep, enigmatic voice, still not taking his eyes off the battlefield. "The much harder question is the first one you posed."

"I can't think of anything," Zelda whispered, tears starting to leak out of her eyes. "I don't know what to do. We're trapped."

"Whether or not we truly are remains to be seen," Mewtwo said.

Zelda looked at him as if just realizing he was there. "What do you mean by that?"

"The enemy we are up against is powerful and smart," Mewtwo began. "Which only makes our job that much harder. However, if my thinking is correct, there may be a way to save the academy." He averted his gaze for the first time, although this was merely to give Zelda a side glance. "How powerful do you think your magical abilities are?"

"Fair," Zelda stammered out, apparently at a loss of what to say or where Mewtwo was going with this.

"I sense that Battlefield has locked itself onto Final Destination much like a human's missile locks onto a target," he continued. "If its target were to move, so would the missile."

"Wait," Zelda said, catching on. "When the two arenas collide, they will explode. But if the explosion isn't near the academy, it'll be spared! We'll all be safe!"

"You forget the young sword master fighting the dark one," Mewtwo explained.

Zelda gasped and looked at Marth. If they were to send the two arenas hurtling away, he would have no hope of surviving. Either he would jump off and fall to his death, or he'd be caught in the explosion. Both ways spelled death.

"Can we avoid that?" Zelda asked in a shaky voice.

"Possibly, but it would involve much speed, skill, and accuracy," Mewtwo said. "He would have to jump off in time to save himself, if indeed he would jump at all, and then we would have to locate him before it was too late, send somebody up to save him, and bring him back down without harm."

"Could you do that?" the young princess asked, eyes pleading for help. "I know you can do it. Please, if Marth jumps...."

"I will do what I can. I shall alert him of our plan and see if he agrees to it."

Marth parried a block from Ganondorf's massive sword. Beaten, bloodied and exhausted, the huge blade almost threw him off balance. He didn't see his enemy's boot coming toward him soon enough and was sent backward with a kick to the chest.

"Pick up your sword," Ganondorf goaded, smirking. "Pick up your sword and try again."

For he had dropped Falchion during the kick, and it now lay a few feet away. He wondered if it was truly worth getting back up and picking his sword up. He was a tired teenager fighting a powerful man with years of experience. The point was that Ganondorf didn't leave the arena, right? He needed to make sure he at least stayed onboard for the explosion....

_You need to pick yourself back up and keep Ganondorf where he is,_ he thought.

Only his voice sounded different. It was very deep and slow--not at all like his own. Half out of surprise, half out of curiosity, he thought, _What? Hello?_

_Get back up and listen to a new plan._

_This voice sounds familiar...._

_This is Mewtwo. I'm contacting you using telepathy._

Distracted by Mewtwo's mind message, Marth barely noticed Ganondorf raising his sword over his head, and he rolled out of the way just in time. The sword sunk into the metal right where Marth's head was. Ganondorf had no trouble at all pulling it back out.

"Have you finally realized how useless you are?" he scowled.

_You said something about a new plan,_ Marth thought, keeping his gaze on Ganondorf this time.

_Zelda and I can save the academy and almost everybody in it._

_You can!?!_

_At a price. Your life._

_That doesn't matter! How does it work?_

_The two of us will combine our power and send Final Destination far away from here. Battlefield will follow it, and the explosion will be too far away to hurt anybody. Anybody but you. Are you prepared?_

_Of course. Just do it._

_Until then, make sure that Ganondorf does not leave. But remember that these will probably be your last moments._

_They'd likely be my last moments anyway. If it saves many more lives, I'd be grateful._

"He's agreed to do it," Mewtwo said to Zelda after a long while of staring at Marth. "Let's combine our power and move the arena."

Zelda focused her energy, held out her hands, and expelled it. A ray of blinding white energy shot out. It pressed against the security barrier in front of the stands, straining to get through. After a small battle, it squeezed through and attached itself to Final Destination's energy source. Mewtwo was concentrating on the source as well, no doubt using his psychic power to the best of its ability.

"How is the battle back at the academy going?" she asked with some difficulty, as maintaining the energy beam required a lot of mental stamina.

"Not well. I can sense that many are wounded, and all are exhausted. The Wire Frames are stronger and smarter than usual, and for every one of us, there are three of them. They don't stop coming. After we send the arena a long distance away, we will join the fight and aid them."

Back on Final Destination, Marth stumbled a bit as the floor beneath him gave a jerk. At first, he wondered whether Ganondorf was using his dark magic against him, but a second later another jerk followed, throwing Ganondorf off balance as well. It began to rumble, starting slowly at first but building in strength as time wore on. Slowly, gradually, it began moving. They were sending Final Destination away. It was past the point of no return.

"What's going on?" Ganondorf growled.

"Nothing you can stop," Marth said with a half-grin. "The arena is being sent away. Battlefield will not collide near the academy and kill everyone. You can't escape, either. You've lost once again. And to a little boy, too."

Ganondorf glared at him. "We'll see about everybody surviving. And I _can_ escape. What makes you think I never planned that?"

"The fact that, no matter what you planned, I'm going to make sure it doesn't work."

"You're losing. Don't kid yourself."

_Just keep him here...just keep him talking,_ Marth thought to himself.

But Ganondorf did not keep talking. He dove at Marth and stabbed at him, wielding his sword with surprising speed and skill despite its incredible size and weight. Marth knocked it out of the way with his own sword and sliced down at his head, but Ganondorf blocked that back and kicked him in the ribs. Recovering from it as best he could, he jumped in front of Ganondorf and swung several quick swipes, each time failing to land a hit on his target.

"Just get out of the way," Ganondorf said nonchalantly.

"Do you think I will?" Marth panted.

_Please let it come soon,_ he thought, glancing up at the sky hopefully. _Just get it over with._

He blocked another sword strike from Ganondorf and gave him a kick in the chest, picking up strategies quickly, but the villain was much stronger and thicker than Marth's slim body, resulting in a mildly pained expression but otherwise very little difference. Changing tactics, he gave a surprise sweep towards Ganondorf's legs. He almost got them, but the large sword blocked it just in time. How he could carry a sword that big and swing it around like it was nothing, he didn't know.

"Get out of the way," Ganondorf threatened in a low tone, baring his teeth.

"No."

"If you don't get out of the way, I'm not going to hold anything back. When you're lying on the ground, blood pouring from whatever I've lopped off and screaming like a newborn baby, perhaps you'll realize just how foolish you were."

"I don't think so."

Ganondorf straightened up, glaring at Marth with hatred, then swung his sword straight up. Marth, not expecting this move, almost didn't dodge out of the way in time. He ducked under a horizontal swing and stabbed at Ganondorf's legs, but he sidestepped it easily. The same foot came back up and kicked him in the face. Marth tasted blood and landed on his back. His sword rolled out of his hands. He tried to muster up the strength to get back up and fight, but all energy was gone from his body. He was tired. He was bloody, beaten, sore, and hadn't been in a good condition for days.

Had he made the right decision? Maybe he should have let somebody else handle it. Somebody who was stronger, somebody who was energized. He felt Ganondorf's fingers wrap around his throat and lift him up with the support of only one hand.

"Life is funny sometimes," Ganondorf said. He sounded absolutely livid. "I thought I could never hate anyone more than Link. But you've surpassed him. Good job."

Marth wanted to retort--tell him, "Thanks, my pleasure"--but couldn't muster up the energy for it. He was dead. He just had to hope that Ganondorf's plan to escape was somehow flawed in a way that he hadn't seen. He let his body go limp.

He tightened his body up almost as quickly. The fingers squeezed tighter, strangling him. He reached for Ganondorf's hands, trying to peel them off with what little energy he had, but the fingers only squeezed harder. His vision blurred.

The tightening stopped. Marth could fell the ground beneath him rumbling again, but this time, it wasn't simply rumbling; great tremors were rushing through it. Through his blurred sight, he could see something behind Ganondorf, glowing with bright purple flames and growing bigger all the time....

Ganondorf saw it too and let out a growl of frustration. He turned his attention back to Marth, and the prince didn't need his complete sight restored to know that Ganondorf's expression of hatred had deepened.

Somehow, the knowledge that Battlefield was hurtling closer, not more than twenty seconds away, gave Marth hope and strength. Mustering up his remaining power, he lifted his legs up and smashed them into Ganondorf's chest. With a grunt, he dropped him. Marth rolled backwards back onto his feet and looked around the arena for his sword. He leapt sideways, just out of reach of Ganondorf's kick, seized his sword, and rolled onto his feet once more. He parried a few more blows from his enemy's sword, glancing nervously at the oncoming ball of purple. No longer fearing pain or death, he jumped and tilted his body back, planting both feet on Ganondorf's head, who stumbled and landed on his back. Before the armored villain could get back up and defend himself, Marth leaped forward, sword raised....

Both men paused. Falchion sunk through Ganondorf's shoulder and went a short way into the metal beneath him. The wide-bladed sword pierced through Marth's skin partially, sinking into the outside of Marth's ribs. He had no idea what damage it had caused, but at the moment he didn't care. He yanked Falchion out and stood up, stumbling backwards. A few steps back, the ground seemed to have vanished...he was falling....

He shoved Falchion back into its sheath and held it there, falling with his back to the ground so far below and his cape billowing around him, watching the two arenas growing smaller and smaller. He let his body go limp again. He had done it. The academy would survive, and Ganondorf would die. Now the only thing to do was wait for his own death.


	22. Chapter 22: The End

The world wasn't real to Marth. It was as if his brain had suddenly pushed reality way, and everything around him was numb and fuzzy. It felt like looking through the wrong end of a telescope.

Within the numb shell that was Marth, thoughts and emotions built up. One such emotion was relief; _I did it. They're saved._ Another, sadness. _And I'll never live to see my friends again._ And a third, which was also numb, as if it was right on the doorstep but not in the house, was pain. He knew every part of him ached--his chest, where Ganondorf had kicked him multiple times. His throat, where he was almost strangled to death. And all his muscles had been screaming in protest for the past...how long was it since he'd gone into the cave? It didn't matter.

In the end, relief and comfort won over all other emotions. _I did good. It doesn't matter what happens to me._ He closed his eyes and let himself fall freely. He was aware of a cloudless blue sky and the sun shining through his eyelids. He thought it was very symbolic. He hoped his friends would enjoy it.

Strong objects wrapped around him...a crowd of people...confused voices speaking...and then all went black.

--

Marth was laying on a cloud. It was very comfortable and molded around him. The air was fresh and clean. He breathed in great gulps of it. It was like water to a man dying of thirst. All around him was shining light which generated an aura of peace. It was a spot that he never wanted to leave. How could he? How could anyone? He rolled over on the cloud and grinned.

But his conscience, which seemed like a part of him watching from a distance, stabbed through the peace and seemed to bring a wave of reality to him. _You're not supposed to be here...you can't sleep on clouds, you'd just fall through...._

Marth's eyes opened, and he sat up quickly. It was a dream; he had not been floating through the air. And he was not lying on a cloud--it was a fluffy bed. The shining light around him came from light rebounding off of pearly white floors and walls. He knew the place, he was sure of that, but he couldn't quite place his finger on what it was. It was like seeing something you recognize but not knowing where it came from.

_This is the Recovery Room,_ he thought. _Yes...and we're in the Super Smash Bros. Academy. Why? What happened?_

His mind went into reverse, going through the dream, the voices and people gathered around him, falling through the sky, battling a dark somebody on a floating battlefield. Faces also flashed into his memory: Samus, Link, Roy, Zelda...Ganondorf.

Every bit of his memory came back to him. He remembered what happened. The building and everyone in it had been threatened. He had fought Ganondorf and hopped off the arena before a gargantuan explosion occurred. Curiosity seeped into him. Where was everybody? What had happened since? Was everybody alright?

He tried to leap out of bed, but several sharp pains in various areas of his body forced him to groan and lie back down again. _Oh, yeah, forgot about those..._and another memory returned to him; Ganondorf getting the upper hand in the battle. He laughed slightly. How could he have forgotten?

A door far away to his left opened, and a young blonde woman walked out of it: Peach. He was so grateful for company, he probably would have welcomed Bowser's presence. He grinned widely and sat up as far as his sore body would let him. Peach seemed surprised at first, but then an equally broad smile lit up her face. "You're awake!" she shouted, nearly dropping the medical equipment she was carrying.

"Where is everybody?" Marth asked. "Are they alright?"

"Well, they looked a lot better than you," she laughed, setting her equipment down for the time being and sitting in a chair next to his bed. "A lot of people sustained injuries from the fight with the Wire Frames. A few had to sit it out because they were exhausted or beaten. But their injuries pretty much paled in comparison to yours."

"What did I look like?"

"Well, your clothes were all ripped and torn, and a few bones had been broken. You were pretty bloody, too. There were bruises all over your body. Suffice it to say that you didn't look in good shape."

Marth tried to sort out his building questions, tried to decide which to ask next. "Was the building damaged at all?"

"Not from the blast. Obviously, Battlefield and Final Destination are gone, but the only damage that was suffered was from the Wire Frame battle. Some areas were chipped and scuffed, windows had been shattered, that sort of thing. Work has already begun to patch it up."

"How long have I been in here?"

"About a good twenty-four hours. I say you're lucky to wake up that early."

Marth was about to ask another barrage of questions, but the Recovery Room doors burst open, and four figures flung themselves in. Marth's second grin surpassed his first; he could not have been happier to see three blond-haired people and one redhead.

"You're awake!" Roy yelled. He nearly knocked himself over Marth's bed from flying into it so fast. The three others crowded around it, beaming. When he racked his brains, he realized that he had never seen Samus smile like that before. She was usually a very serious individual.

"Are you all okay?" Marth asked.

"We're all fine," Samus assured him. "You were the one we were worried about. We didn't think you had a chance of survival."

"I was pretty angry when Zelda told me what happened," said Roy, "about how they had sent Final Destination away with you on it. I'm not saying I didn't believe in you, but I was pretty sure there was no way out of that. I knew it had to be done, but...." He shrugged. "Nobody likes losing a friend."

"I almost lost all of you," said Marth. "I know that would have hurt. When I was falling, I wasn't afraid of dying, I was afraid of what you'd be like when you saw me. I didn't want to think about how sad you'd become. That is," he added, injecting a little humor, "if you'd be sad to be rid of me. I'm just kidding," he reassured them hastily when they began to respond. "Come to think of it, what happened? The last I remember, I was falling...."

"Mewtwo and I went to fight the Wire Frames," Zelda said. "I was pretty tired from exerting my magic, so I had to back out soon. Around the same time, Mewtwo teleported to the top of the building and watched the skies for you. After the two structures collided, he began flying around the area where the explosion took place. When he saw you, he teleported near you, grabbed you, and teleported you back before you hit the ground. The Wire Frames froze where they were and began to fade from existence."

"That was probably because...." Marth stopped midsentence. "What happened to Ganondorf?"

"What do you think?" Samus asked. "An explosion the size of Tallon IV collided head-on with him. I think it's safe to say he's gone for good."

"Great," Marth sighed. "He never should have been here in the first place. To think he'd endanger so many lives just for his goal...."

"That's not news to us," Link said darkly. "Ganondorf wouldn't care how many people he hurt so long as, in the end, he got what he wanted. Instead, he's always gotten what he deserved."

"So now his threat is gone forever," muttered Marth. "So...what?"

"So what, what?" Roy asked.

"What are we going to do? Are we redoing the end of the tournament?"

"They're talking about it," Roy replied. "They think they will; Master Hand says everybody didn't get into this just for a near-death experience. After that, we're going to have another party, and I think it's going to be huge."

"Speaking of Master Hand," said Marth, "where is he? I want to talk to him. And I don't mean to run you off, but...privately."

They all nodded and left the room. Peach went into the back room Marth had first seen her come out of and shut the door. He laid back down on his bed and stared at the ceiling, waiting for Master Hand to arrive. So many questions still needed answering. Questions such as, "Why invite a heartless killer to the fold?" and "Did nobody know of a cave beneath the academy?" Surely they'd be answered when Master Hand came.

A few minutes later, a strange sound on the table beside him made him jump. Gadgets and devices had always been all over it, but he had never really stopped to see what they did. One of these devices was small, black, and circular, and was humming. The outer edges of it were whirring while the center remained stationary. A glass (or something similar to glass) core glowed orange, getting brighter. The light erupted into a reddish-orange, hand-shaped figure which seemed to be constructed out of whatever the Wire Frames were composed of.

"You wanted to speak to me, I believe?" Master Hand's deep voice boomed out.

Somehow, the device was projecting an image of Master Hand. Recovering from his initial shock, Marth launched right into his set of questions that sat ready for asking. "Why did you invite Ganondorf here? You knew what he was like. You must have known something like this would happen."

Master Hand was silent for a moment, apparently deliberating on a response. A few seconds had passed before he said, "The Super Smash Bros. were not formed just as a means to fight. Part of it was also to learn about other dimensions and those who lived in them. But one of the other reasons I brought them together was to form new friendships. I believed that even those cold at heart could realize how wonderful doing good and building friendships could be."

"But it didn't work," Marth said before he could stop himself. He couldn't help but feel slightly angry at Master Hand for missing such an obvious flaw.

"For the most part, it has," Master Hand contradicted him. "Bowser himself has not attempted any wrongdoing above stealing food from the kitchen--in which he has been caught numerous times. Despite how mean and cruel he is to most of the people here, I can see a small bond forming between them all."

"I think Bowser's ready to beat up anybody who gets in his way," Marth pointed out. "No offense, but I really can't see a bond building."

"Nasty as Bowser is to most of you, he probably could not imagine killing, kidnapping, destroying this building, or coming up with another of his brilliant domination plans. There may be some exceptions to these rules, such as Mario, Peach, and, more recently, you. But much as Bowser may not like to admit it, he feels a small amount of friendship between most of you."

"How would you know that?"

"By observing a number of occasions. Such as, for instance, not long ago, when Bowser mentioned that you did a brilliant job killing Ganondorf and saving the academy, all enmity between the both of you forgotten."

Marth remembered how he had tricked Bowser into following him to a spot where he and Samus had laid a beating on him, believing him to be Mastermind. He felt an unexpected rush of gratitude and apology toward Bowser. The evil Koopa King praised him loudly and proudly, even if he had just saved them all?

"I didn't know that," Marth muttered.

"Back to the point, I was hoping Ganondorf might follow suit. He didn't. This _is_ an error on my part. A large error. I believed that if any of the former villains decided to become present villains and try anything wrong, we would still be safe. I thought I knew where to check look for missing things, that I had the technology and the resources to crack anything, that the many talented fighters here would discourage such activity. It surprised me when I realized that I was powerless. I tried everything in my resources. I tried sending small robots to spy on everyone, much as I knew that it was an invasion of privacy. I could not find anything. My last resort was to wait until the tournament was over and send everybody out looking for the missing ones. Thanks to a certain someone, it did not come to that."

Marth reflected on what he'd heard. His anger at Master Hand had ebbed away to be replaced by sympathy. He should have guessed how terrible Master Hand must have felt, thinking that everyone was safe and then not being able to protect the people he was hosting.

"It wasn't just me," said Marth. "I did very little, actually. Samus figured out most of the clues, and Link, Zelda, and Roy helped me fight."

"Yet it was you who took the initiative to form the Trackers, you who strived daily to figure out the truth, and you who fought Ganondorf one-on-one."

"Well, I--how did you know about the Trackers?"

"Your friends told me."

His friends...he wanted to see them again. As soon as possible, he wanted to get out of bed and be out and about again. But he still had a few other questions to ask, so it would have to wait for just awhile longer.

"The cave beneath the academy..." he began.

"Yes, the cave. I believe that was Crazy Hand's creation." At the puzzled look on Marth's face, he elaborated. "As you are only too aware, Crazy Hand loves chaos. Did you know he wanted to make the academy full of traps and secret passageways?" Marth shook his head, surprised. "I obviously didn't let that happen, but I do believe that he did manage to create a few secret passages without my knowing. No particular reason; just so that it wasn't orderly and it was, well, chaotic. That cave must have always been under the academy. All Crazy Hand probably had to do was create an entrance for it in the academy. I never even knew."

They were both silent for awhile. Were there any other secret passages nobody knew about?

He decided to put thinking about that off until later. "Do Roy, Link, and Samus have their things back? And Falco?"

"Yes. After you were safe in the Recovery Room, we sent a party down into the caves to look for other things, including their items and weapons. One of the tunnels led to a room containing those items."

"And is the Ultimate Tournament continuing?"

"The answer to that is also yes. I have yet to decide where, but I'm considering either the Hyrule Temple or Peach's Castle. That's not for a few days, however. You'll have plenty of time to rest until then."

Marth asked his last question. "Are we creating another Battlefield and Final Destination?"

"Maybe. I will have to talk to Crazy Hand about that. If we do, extra precautions shall be taken to ensure that nothing of this scale ever happens again."

Marth nodded. "Thanks. That's all I wanted to ask."

"It's natural to ask questions when you've saved the world and haven't been awake for the past twenty-four hours."

Marth grinned at him. He heaved himself up higher and slid his legs out of bed.

"You know, of course, that Princess Peach will protest," Master Hand said with a hint of amusement in his voice.

"I suppose I'll have to deal with it."

And sure enough, before he could reach the door, the back door opened and Peach came out. She hurried over and guided him back to his bed, insisting that he was not well enough to be moving out and about, and Marth had no choice but to lay back down on the bed, waiting for the next time Peach would turn her back.

--

Three days later, Marth couldn't have been happier.

He was out of the Recovery Room (when Peach had finally buckled the previous day) and was sitting in the stands floating near Hyrule Temple, cheering on the three figures fighting beneath them. It felt good. He was no longer fighting and no longer searching for clues in order to save the lives of the people at the academy. He was free from that burden, and it felt good. Sitting in the stands cheering was just where he was supposed to be.

The match was long an action-packed. Giant Punches, Shadow Balls, and Final Cutters whipped around everywhere. At the end of a very suspenseful fifteen minutes, the match came to an end. The winner stood victorious in the middle of the ruined temple. That winner....

...Was Kirby.

The stands erupted into applause, celebrating the winner of the Ultimate Tournament. Nobody even heard Master Hand's announcements as he handed a trophy and a keycard to the Personal Bank (a machine in everyone's room that could transfer money from their vaults) to Kirby. He didn't look immensely happy or even stunned; he just had the innocent, blank stare on his face, accompanied by the slightly open mouth.

They all gathered in the lobby, congratulating Kirby for his victory. Not everybody had expected it; most thought Mewtwo was to be the undoubted winner, and some others figured Donkey Kong would take the trophy. Very few (if anybody) thought Kirby had a chance. But just like there were zero odds for defeating Ganondorf and he overcame, Kirby also overcame.

Final plans were being made for the party. Peach had a list of what food was to be cooked and what decorations were to go up, but a few last-minute adjustments were being made. Peach wanted a banner to hang across the kitchen saying something important (Roy had suggested "Never underestimate a marshmallow," but Peach thought it was hardly appropriate).

"And we'll have his trophy up on a pedestal," she finished, forming an invisible pedestal with her hands. "Kirby, where's your trophy?"

At the mention of his shining prize, all eyes turned on Kirby. The trophy was nowhere to be found.

A long silence followed before Kirby answered. "Well, I was hungry, and it kind of looked like chocolate...."

"_You ate your trophy!?!_" someone bellowed. Some people laughed; everybody else looked shocked. Marth grinned. He was just happy that Kirby was still around to eat his prize. That day was going to be a great day indeed.

--

FINAL AUTHOR'S NOTE: This ends Super Smash Bros. Melee: Ultimate Tournament. The story will carry on soon when the Brawl sequel, Divided, is up. You shouldn't have to wait long; I plan on writing it very soon.

I sincerely hope you enjoyed this story. Stick around; Divided should be even better. Plans are not complete for it (meaning the entire story isn't developed and the general list of chapters isn't up yet), but I believe it should dwarf Ultimate Tournament in terms of length and will focus more on action, adventure, and some suspense rather than mystery. Keep your eyes peeled, and goodbye.


End file.
